Amicus Brief: Rodas v. Notaria Cuarta del Circuito de Cali, et al.

SUMMARY

The Committee on Inter-American Affairs and the Vance Center for International Justice submitted an amicus brief for the Association before the Constitutional Court of Colombia in Rodas v. Notaria Cuarta del Circuito de Cali, et al. This matter concerns two individuals who sought to invoke the Court’s decision that same-sex couples have the equal right to constitute families in a formal and solemn contract with the same legal effects as civil marriage. The Court gave Colombia’s Congress a period of time to pass the requisite legislation, which it failed to do. The government is now opposing the granting of marriage to same-sex couples. The brief, filed in Spanish, described developments in U.S. law, the trend of which is to find barriers to such marriage unconstitutional, and analyzed the major relevant cases. The brief also detailed the expanding consensus in favor of and prevalence of marriage, particularly in the Americas (North, South, and Central).