AFA of PA ACTION ALERT
November 5, 2011
Issue
Attorney General and Pennsylvania’s Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
Details
If you have emailed Attorney General Linda Kelly’s office you have all received this response:
“Thank you for contacting the PA Office of Attorney General.
We appreciate your interest, but you have apparently been misinformed about the role of the Office of Attorney General in this matter.”
Fact 1: Right NOW our state Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is under assault in a lawsuit where the surviving “spouse” from a Canadian same-sex marriage is upset because her “wife,” Sarah Ellyn Farley, who died of cancer last year, designated her parents as the beneficiary for Farley’s retirement plan. The deceased was an attorney in the Chicago office of Philadelphia-based Cozen O’Connor, P.C. The case, Cozen O’Connor v. Tobits, No. 2:11-cv-45 (E.D. Pa.), is pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Fact 2: Ms. Tobits has informed the Attorney General’s office that she will directly raise the question of the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s DOMA.
Fact 3: Our sources tell us that Attorney General Linda Kelly has said she will not defend DOMA
Action Steps
Contact Attorney General Linda Kelly’s office via e-mail and ask her to issue a statement clarifying her position on our Defense of Marriage Act and whether she will defend it in this direct challenge to its constitutionality. Click here for email form.
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