The First Circuit Court of Appeals should rule against the territory of Puerto Rico’s same-sex marriage ban, Americans United for Separation of Church and State argued in a friend-of-the-court brief filed yesterday.Americans United joined the Anti-Defamation League and a wide range of religious and civil liberties groups to tell the court that the ban unconstitutionally restricts the rights of Puerto Rico’s LGBT community.

“Under the First Amendment, which safeguards religious liberty for all, selective religious understandings cannot define marriage recognition for purposes of civil law,” the brief states, and adds, “It is a violation of the First Amendment to deny individuals the right to marry on the grounds that such marriages would offend the tenets of a particular religious group.”The brief also rejects the argument that the extension of marriage equality to the district will result in discriminatory lawsuits targeted at people of faith, noting that “cities and municipalities in Puerto Rico already bar anti-gay discrimination.”“Those who make such arguments actually take issue with the anti-discrimination law and the government’s decision to provide anti-discrimination protection with respect to public accommodations, not with the legal definition of marriage,” it says.“It’s time for marriage equality to reach Puerto Rico,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “Puerto Ricans deserve the same constitutional protections as those in the continental U.S., and that includes the right to marry.”The brief was prepared by Rocky C. Tsai, Matthew Tolve, Rebecca Harlow and Paul Jay Cohen of Ropes & Gray LLP; and Steven M. Freeman and Seth M. Marnin of the Anti-Defamation League. Americans United’s associate legal director, Alex J. Luchenitser, assisted with the brief.“Puerto Rico’s marriage ban was clearly motivated by religious doctrines that condemn gay and lesbian people,” said Luchenitser. “Such religion-based laws cannot stand under the U.S. Constitution.”