Tag Archives: Group: American Foundation for Equal Rights

OC Weekly: Jordan Lorence, senior vice counsel and vice president of Alliance Defense Fund, a coalition of Christian attorneys and organizations backing Prop. 8, reacts: “It is a significant development in favor of marriage.”

New York Times: “The cause for this fundraiser — extravagant even when measured against Hollywood events — was the legal fight to overturn Proposition 8, the California voter initiative that banned gay marriage. At the end of the night, as the crowd headed to a long line of waiting limousines and shuttle vans, Rob Reiner, the director and a leader of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, announced that the event had raised $3 million.”

New York Times: “With scores of first-time donors in the room, many of them from Wall Street, the AFER [American Foundation for Equal Rights] raised more than $1.2 million – with $100,000 coming in during and after last night’s event. The reception was chaired by three Republicans: Ken Mehlman, left, of private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company; Paul Singer of hedge fund Elliott Management; and Peter Thiel of hedge fund Clarium Capital.”

The Daily Californian: “Supporters of the marriage ban, including the Alliance Defense Fund, have said they would appeal the decision.”

The Desert Sun: “Olson and Boies are the lawyers who once opposed each other in Bush v. Gore following the 2000 election, but now represent two unmarried same-sex couples who want to marry but can’t under the ban . . . [Jim Campbell], an attorney representing the Alliance Defense Fund, which supports the gay marriage ban, said ‘we’ve laid out a strong case for the Constitutionality of Proposition 8. We feel that the 9th Circuit (Court of Appeals) has clearly said that sexual orientation is not a suspect class,’ he said.” | ADFmedia.org Perry v. Schwarzenegger resource page

John D. Podesta, founder and president of the Center for American Progress, and Robert A. Levy, chairman of the Cato Institute, writing in the Washington Post: “43 years after Loving, the courts are once again grappling with denial of equal marriage rights — this time to gay couples. We believe that a society respectful of individual liberty must end this unequal treatment under the law. Toward that goal, we have agreed to co-chair the advisory board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights. The foundation helped launch the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, which is currently before a federal district court in California but is likely to be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”