Dozens of University of Minnesota law professors have sent an open letter opposing a bill that would place a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in Minnesota on the 2012 ballot.

An amendment "would set in constitutional cement the existing hardships on thousands of families, including children, that many in the legal profession serve," the letter says.

It also calls the effort "a wasteful and harmful diversion away from the state's immediate need to focus on many other pressing problems."

Read the full letter here.

According to a professor quoted in the Minnesota Daily, the U's student newspaper, civil rights professor Dale Carpenter spearheaded the letter.

Less than a week ago, Carpenter made the New York Times with an op-ed that explained, "How the Law Accepted Gays."

In it, he notes that:

Read the full piece here.