Amazon, Apple, Google and Target are
among the 379 companies that have signed on to an amicus brief
urging the Supreme Court to strike down gay marriage bans.
The highest court on Thursday announced
that it would hear a case challenging bans in four states – Ohio,
Tennessee, Michigan and Kentucky – on April 28, with a ruling
expected in June.
Such bans “hamper employer efforts to
recruit and retain the most talented workforce possible in those
states,” the companies say in their friend-of-the-court brief.
Gay couples can currently marry in 37
states, plus the District of Columbia. (Conflicting
rulings in Alabama have blocked such weddings for now.)
“The burden imposed by inconsistent
and discriminatory state laws of having to administer complicated
schemes to account for differential treatment of similarly situated
employees breeds unnecessary confusion, tension, and diminished
employee morale,” the
brief states.