On January 20th, 2010, the Brooklyn Law School ACLU chapter hosted James Esseks, the Litigation Director of the ACLU’s Gay Bisexual Transgenger Project, Matthew Faiella, staff attorney at the NYCLU, and Ross Levi ’97, Director of Public Policy and Education at the Empire State Pride Agenda. The distinguished panel was moderated by Professor Nelson Tebbe, who has an upcoming article on marriage equality in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

The panelists detailed the current state of marriage rights extended to gay and lesbian couples in New York state and the rest of the nation. The tone was optimistic, despite recent setbacks in New York, Maine, and elsewhere. The panelists conveyed that the overall trend was positive in light of the fact that there were almost no marriage or marriage-like rights given to same-sex couples 10 years ago. However, the panelists reinforced the notion that there was much ground to be covered before true marriage equality can be said to exist. Legislative and litigation strategies were discussed to achieve these ends. The current case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger [wikipedia][decision]  was discussed, including its potential treatment in the Supreme Court as well as alternate Constitutional Arguments (as outlined by Prof. Tebbe in his article).

[Pictures coming soon]

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