• The Supreme Court Announces It Will Take Up the Prop 8 Case on March 26

  • The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Hears the Case on Prop 8

  • The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Rules Prop 8 is Unconstitutional

  • Prop 8 Supporters Appeal to Supreme Court

Breitbart: Judge Who Threw Out Prop 8 Wanted to Attend Supreme Court to Support Gay Marriage Side

Emails obtained and posted online highlight the cozy relationship between anti-Prop 8 Judge Walker and lead anti-Prop 8 attorney Ted Olson:

Vaughn R. Walker, retired judge who overturned California's Proposition 8 in 2010, asked attorneys who will be defending same-sex marriage in the Supreme Court next week if he could attend oral arguments, as revealed Friday morning in a series of emails posted by conservative blogger Patrick Frey aka Pattterico.

The emails indicate a friendly relationship between retired judge Vaughn Walker and Ted Olsen, one of the attorneys who argued to overturn Prop 8 in front of Walker.

At the time, there was controversy over whether Walker, who is gay, ought to have recused himself from the case. A federal court ruled in 2011 that he did not have to do so.

The emails were obtained exclusively by Patterico in an unredacted form. Patterico confirmed that the email addresses appeared to be those of Walker and Ted Olsen's law firm but as of his publication, Patterico had not received replies to his requests for comment or confirmation.

... Patterico--who personally supports same-sex marriage but opposes using the courts as a means to that end--believes that the emails give credence to the belief that Walker was not an impartial jurist for Proposition 8. (Breitbart)

on Monday, March 25, 2013 at 8:00 am | NOM Staff

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Sen. DeMint at CPAC: Marriage is the Path to Limited Government

Last night at the CPAC banquet Sen. DeMint strongly spoke out in defense of marriage:

"...We cannot hope to limit government if we do not stand up for our core civil society institutions, beginning with marriage. Marriage is the foundation of America’s cultural stability and economic prosperity and the courts have no business overruling the people’s democratic decisions in the states. People can love whom they want and live the way they choose, but no one is entitled to redefine a foundational institution of civil society that has existed for centuries.

In two weeks, the Supreme Court will hear arguments against the right of states to protect marriage and the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Judicial activism is to blame for the Court even considering these cases. The Supreme Court should uphold these laws. It must recognize that the American people should make these decisions, not unelected judges.

We are told that the social issues divide Americans and that we should stop talking about them. We cannot.

Economic and social conservatism go hand-in-hand. They’re natural allies. Strong families, churches and voluntary institutions build strong character and economic independence. And government must always remember we are endowed by our creator with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is true for you and me, and it is true for the unborn. When government understands its limited role, it can be smaller, people can be freer and our economy can create prosperity for everyone. And when government grows larger with programs like Obamacare that consume so much of our lives, it tramples on both economic freedom and religious liberty. This has united conservatives of all stripes to fight to end Obamacare so we can all be free to live our own lives."

You can read the rest of the speech and watch the video here.

on Friday, March 15, 2013 at 11:30 am | NOM Staff

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Top Gay Groups Tell Lesbian Couple to Back Down Rather Than Risk Sixth Circuit Rebuke

More evidence that top gay activist groups are worried that their legal case before the Supreme Court is hardly airtight:

... Hoping to avoid a marriage case being heard by the more conservative Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, several organizations fighting for marriage equality — including the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, and National Center for Lesbian Rights — suggested in a December 2012 filing that the court hold off.

... Although courtroom successes have been plenty in challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, more direct marriage-rights cases have met with mixed results. Although courts in the Proposition 8 challenge have found the California amendment to be unconstitutional, federal marriage equality lawsuits in Hawaii and Nevada were rejected by trial courts.

... The case, initially filed in January 2012, came only after several LGBT organizations declined to participate, Dana Nessel, one of the couple's attorneys, told BuzzFeed Thursday. "What they told us is that they refuse to touch anything in the Sixth Circuit [Court of Appeals]."

The fear: they would lose.

Jay Kaplan of the ACLU of Michigan told BuzzFeed Friday that Nessel's assessment was accurate, saying, "If you're going to bring a marriage equality claim, you want to be sure that you're going to be successful at all stages of the process." Of the Sixth Circuit, he said, "There is not a progressive majority on the court." (BuzzFeed)

on Monday, March 11, 2013 at 10:45 am | NOM Staff

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Video: NOM’s Peters: Obama Has No Credibility on Marriage

NOM's Thomas Peters appeared on the Christian Broadcasting Network to discuss President Obama's recent decision to get involved in the Proposition 8 case -- and also got a chance to spread the word about the March for Marriage!

When asked about the impact of Obama's choice to weigh in, he responded:

"I think if it has any impact it will actually have a negative one in terms of getting the result that the President wants. I think he has politicized the issue and frankly he has no credibility on it either because, as that montage you just showed points out, he's flipped his position several times now. And at this stage, the question at the Supreme Court is whether we're going to respect the rights of the seven million Californian voters who voted to protect marriage, or if the Supreme Court is going to by fiat erase their democratic vote."

Watch the video of the segment here:

on Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at 12:00 pm | NOM Staff

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