The major players in Silicon Valley agree on at least one thing: Same-sex marriage bans should be struck down.
Apple, Google, Facebook and other tech giants are among a long list of companies that filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court Thursday urging the nine justices to overturn statewide bans on same-sex marriage. The Court will hear arguments on April 28 in a potentially landmark case expected to decide if statewide bans on gay marriage violate the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.
The brief argues that it’s overly cumbersome for corporations doing business at the national level to deal with individual states’ varying same-sex marriage laws.
“The patchwork of state laws applicable to same-sex marriage thus impairs our business interests and employer/employee relations,” the brief reads. “If the Court were to affirm the decision below, the costs and uncertainty imposed by inconsistent state marriage laws will only continue.”
Other companies included in the brief include Coca-Cola, Amazon and Xerox. Apple has been particularly outspoken on the issue of gay rights. Its CEO, Tim Cook, publicly said for the first time last year that he’s gay while reaffirming his company’s commitment to fairness in the realm of sexuality and gender.