Justice Speaks: October 12, 2011

Same-Sex Marriage in the Age of DOMA 

Wednesday, October 12, 2011
12:50–1:50 p.m.
Room W402

Click here to watch a video of this event.

Melissa Goodman, Senior Litigation and Policy Counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union
Susan Sommer, Senior Counsel and Director of Constitutional Litigation, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
Professor Arthur Leonard, Professor of Law at New York Law School, Founder of New York City's LGBT Bar Association, and Editor of the Lesbian/Gay Law Notes
Moderated by: Cortney Nadolney, 2011–2012 Carbonell Law and Policy Fellow, Justice Action Center, New York Law School

Same-sex marriage continues to be a major topic of debate in American politics. Though individual states are making progress toward marriage recognition for all, enforcement of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) allows the federal government to continue to discriminate against same-sex couples. The Justice Action Center welcomed Susan Sommer of Lambda Legal, Melissa Goodman of the New York Civil Liberties Union, and NYLS Professor Art Leonard as they discussed the current status of same-sex marriage.

The panelists discussed: the debate over the difference between civil unions and marriage, the state-by-state strategy for marriage recognition, and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), specifically the status of the case Windsor v. United States, currently being litigated.

Continuing Legal Education (CLE)
This program was approved for one hour of CLE credit in professional practice for both transitional and non-transitional attorneys.

About the Speakers:

Susan Sommer, J.D., Director of Constitutional Litigation, Senior Program Associate, Senior Counsel, and Supervisor of the Youth in Out-Of-Home Care Project at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Susan Sommer is Senior Counsel and Director of Constitutional Litigation for Lanbda Legal, the oldest and largest national legal organization comitted to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people, and people with HIV. Sommer supervises attorney and staff and participates in all aspects of Lambda Legal's impact litigation, policy advocacy, and public education to advance the civil rights of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or living with HIV.

Sommer is the director of Lambda Legal's Youth in Out-of-Home Care Project, which aims to ensure that LGBT youth in foster care are safe and supported. She leads a historic joint partnership between Lambda Legal and the Child Welfare League of America that will make LGBT youth a clear priority for state and local children's agencies around the country.

Sommer was the lead counsel in and argued the landmark New York Court of Appeals cases Debra H. v. Janice R. (2010), addressing recognition of parental status of a partner in a Vermont civil union, Godfrey v. Spano (2009), addressing recognition of out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples, and Hernandez v. Robles (2006), challenging exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage in New York. Additionally, Sommer was the lead attorney on Lambda Legal's lawsuit that convinced the Arkansas Supreme Court to strike down the state's antigay sodomy law and clearly identify a right to privacy in the state's constitution for the first time. She played a key role in Lawrence v. Texas, Lambda Legal's landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down Texas's "Homosexual Conduct" law.

Sommer clerked for U.S. District Court Judge William Schwarzer in the Northern District of California. A 1986 graduate of Yale Law School, Sommer served as notes editor at the Yale Law & Policy Review. She received her bachelor's degree in American Studies from Yale, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude.

Melissa Goodman, J.D., Senior Litigation and Policy Counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union 

Melissa Goodman is a senior litigation and policy counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union, where she conducts and coordinates litigation, policy, and advocacy work on LGBT and reproductive rights issues. She is counsel in Windsor v. United States, a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act filed by the ACLU, NYCLU, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison on behalf of Edith Windsor, whose marriage with her late spouse and partner of 44 years the federal government refuses to recognize for federal tax purposes. Prior to joining the NYCLU, Goodman was a staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, where she litigated cases challenging warrantless government surveillance, excessive government secrecy, the U.S. military’s detention practices at Guantánamo and Bagram, the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program, and the government's practice of ideological exclusion.

Goodman received her J.D. from New York University in 2003, where she was awarded an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellowship and the John Perry Prize Award in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and was an articles editor for the Review of Law and Social Change. During law school, Goodman worked on issues related to the rights of LGBT people and people with HIV/AIDS with the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office, the Legal Action Center, and Housing Works. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Frederic Block of the Eastern District of New York.

Professor Arthur S. Leonard, J.D., Professor at New York Law School, Founder of New York City’s LGBT Bar Association, and Editor of the Lesbian/Gay Law Notes

Professor Arthur Leonard has been a professor of law at New York Law School since 1982. He started the city’s LGBT Bar Association, and has been writing on LGBT legal issues for more than 30 years.

A frequent national spokesperson on sexual orientation law and an expert on the rapidly emerging area of gay family law, he is a contributing writer for Gay City News (formerly LGNY), New York’s weekly lesbian and gay newspaper, and has written for several other lesbian and gay newspapers in New York City. He also blogs on LGBT and AIDS legal issues.


Professor Leonard has held a variety of influential and activist positions in civic and legal organizations, including trustee of Lambda Legal, trustee of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York, chair of the Section on Gay and Lesbian Legal Issues of the Association of American Law Schools, and chair of the Sex and Law Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He is chair of the Human Resources Committee and a trustee of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services of New York.


He has testified on the New York City gay rights bill, organized forums that helped change rules on domestic partnership benefits, and helped produce oft-cited studies of the court system and legal profession that demonstrated the need for equality of opportunity and treatment for minorities.


At NYLS, he advises the LGBT student group and has been an effective advocate for change on lesbian and gay issues. In 2000, Professor Leonard was honored by the Law School at a symposium commemorating the 20th anniversary of the now-celebrated Lesbian/Gay Law Notes, which had begun as a typed, one-page sheet that he sent out to a handful of colleagues. In 2010, the Law School and the LGBT Law Association Foundation honored him again on the publication’s 30th anniversary.


Professor Leonard received the prestigious 2005 Dan Bradley Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association in recognition of his significant contributions to the advance of LGBT rights under the law.

Leonard received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he graduated cum laude. He received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

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