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Local attorney to argue against gay marriage bans before Supreme Court

Mary Bonauto.John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Well-known local attorney Mary Bonauto will be one of two advocates to argue against state bans on same-sex marriage before the Supreme Court this month.

As civil rights project director of the Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, Bonauto first rose to national prominence in 2003, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court agreed with her argument that the state Constitution required Massachusetts to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The news that Bonauto, 53, would argue the much-anticipated marriage appeals April 28 came after the Supreme Court quietly reiterated its initial directive that parties send only two attorneys — one to argue each of their two questions.

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Attorneys for the same-sex couples sent a letter to the Supreme Court clerk proposing they send four attorneys to the lectern, giving credence to reports of tensions behind the scenes as many attorneys vied for the opportunity to argue one of this term’s most high-profile cases before the Supreme Court. A court spokesperson said the clerk’s office “verbally encouraged” the attorneys to accept the court’s initial plan.

In press releases this week, groups involved in the litigation announced Bonauto will deliver the arguments. She will share the lectern with Douglas Hallward-Driemeier, representing 37 attorneys for plaintiffs in four cases across four states.

Bonauto is the best known of the attorneys working on the four marriage cases from the Sixth Circuit appeal. In 2010, she tackled the federal Defense of Marriage Act, winning favorable rulings in the federal district court and the First Circuit US Court of Appeals in Boston. Bonauto and her spouse, Jennifer Wriggins, live in Portland, Maine, where they are raising twin daughters.

She’s been profiled in The New York Times magazine and awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grant. Former representative Barney Frank and others have compared her to civil rights giant and former Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall.

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Bonauto has led GLAD’s legal team for 25 years. She is cocounsel on the team of private attorneys in the Michigan case, one of the four cases challenging state bans on same-sex marriage and the refusal of those states to recognize marriage licenses obtained in other states. The other cases come from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. All four contend that the bans violate the rights to equal protection and due process for same-sex couples.

Bonauto addressed the media after a hearing at the US Court of Appeals on the Defense of Marriage Act.John Tlumacki/Globe staff

A GLAD press release indicated Bonauto would represent both the Michigan case and the Kentucky case. She will be addressing the court’s first question: “Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex?”

Hallward-Driemeier, a partner in the prominent national law firm Ropes & Gray, in Washington, D.C., will argue the court’s second question: “Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?” Hallward-Driemeier is an attorney on the legal team challenging the Tennessee ban and will also be representing plaintiffs in the Ohio case.

Hallward-Driemeier heads Ropes & Gray’s Supreme Court practice and, prior to joining the firm, handled Supreme Court litigation for the Department of Justice. He also served as assistant to Solicitor General Paul Clement during the administration of President George W. Bush. An article in the Journal of Law for Emory University School of Law said Hallward-Driemeier ranked 26th among the most frequent Supreme Court advocates between 2000 and 2012, having argued 13 cases.

Lisa Keen can be reached at LisaKeen@mac.com.