Tag Archives: Topic: Marriage

The Salt Lake Tribune: A bill advancing in the Arizona Legislature would abolish the police department in Colorado City, a northern Arizona community where state Attorney General Tom Horne says officers who are followers of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs flout the law.

NJ.com: State Sen. Christopher “Kip” Bateman (R-Somerset) has introduced a measure to allow voters to decide whether New Jersey should allow gay couples to get married.
The measure (SCR-88) . . .

Dale Carpenter at the Volokh Conspiracy: In contrast to Judge Walker’s maximalist opinion striking down Prop 8, it’s generally accepted that Judge Reinhardt’s opinion was minimalist. There’s a commonsense way in which the opinion is not at all minimalist.

OneNewsNow.com: Colorado lawmakers face the task of dealing with a same-gender civil unions bill again this year.

Attorney Andrew Pugno and opposing counsel Ted Olson appeared on KPCC 89.3 (C. Cal. Public Radio) to discuss the ruling. | MP3 audio 12:22 mins

ADF Attorney Joe Infranco and John Eastman, Chairman of the Board of the National Organization for Marriage appeared on Ave Maria Radio with Al Kresta to discuss the ruling. | MP3 audio 13:08 mins

ADF Attorney Dale Schowengerdt appeared on several radio shows to discuss the Prop. 8 ruling. | The Drew Mariani Show - MP3 audio 11:40 mins | WSHO in New Orleans with Kathleen Benfield – MP3 audio 16:13 mins | The Victoria Taft Show - MP3 audio 7:56 mins

Inside Bay Area: Austin Nimocks, a senior lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, one of the groups defending the law, would not reveal the strategic considerations, but promised: “We will do something. I can guarantee that.”

The Bend Bulletin: Austin Nimocks, a lawyer who argues against same-sex marriage for the Alliance Defense Fund, noted that while some polls showed increasing support for gay marriage, voters had never approved it at the polls. In 31 statewide votes, voters have consistently defined marriage as between a man and a woman, he said. “I don’t see a shift in momentum,” Nimocks said. “You can use all the polls you want. You can say anything you want to about civil unions or domestic partnerships, but when it comes to marriage, the record is clear.”

Sacramento Bee: roposition 8 backers are already dismissing the ruling as the work of a liberal appeals court. As Brian Raum, a lawyer for the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, said in a statement, “We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage – tried in San Francisco – turned out this way.” But before they engage in the usual stereotyping of the 9th Circuit, Proposition 8 proponents might want to carefully examine the legal precedents the appeals court relied upon in handing down its decision.

Pueblo Chieftain: Brian Raum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund that helped defend Proposition 8 in court, noted, “We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way. But we are confident that the expressed will of the American people in favor of marriage will be upheld at the Supreme Court.”

Bloomberg: This is a blatant matter of abusing the rights of church officials to be involved in local affairs,” said Joel Oster, a lawyer in Kansas for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based group that represents religious organizations. “We are excited about this case because of the precedent that could be established.”

Daniel B. Wood at Christian Science Monitor at Yahoo! News: The Alliance Defense Fund, which helped to defend Prop. 8 in court, has not divulged its plans, but senior counsel Brian Raum has said the group expects to make a decision “in due time.”

Baptist Press (includes video of Alan Sears): Alliance Defense Fund attorney Dale Schowengerdt said that while the decision’s outcome was more narrow than Walker’s, its reasoning in striking down Prop 8 was broad. “It’s not a narrow ruling in many regards,” Schowengerdt told Baptist Press. “The court basically said there’s no legitimate reason to define marriage as the union between a man and a woman. The court said Proposition 8 was supported by nothing but animus.”

San Francisco Chronicle (Bloomberg): “We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way,” Brian Raum, an attorney for proponents and senior counsel at the legal group Alliance Defense Fund, said in an e-mail. “But we are confident that the expressed will of the American people in favor of marriage will be upheld at the Supreme Court.”

NCRegister.com: till, whenever marriage has been put to a vote, Americans overwhelmingly reject the idea of changing its definition. Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel Brian Raum said that “63 million Americans in 31 state elections have voted on marriage, and 63% voted to preserve marriage as the timeless, universal, unique union between husband and wife.”

Reuters: A bill to legalize gay marriage in Washington state won final legislative approval on Wednesday in a largely party-line vote that moved the state to the cusp of becoming the seventh in the nation to recognize same-sex nuptials.

WSJ.com (via Google): New Jersey Advocates Lose Important Fund-Raising Source, Search for New Donors as Battle Heads to Legislature for Vote

Reuters: The Washington state House of Representatives was expected to endorse gay marriage on Wednesday in a vote that puts the state on the cusp of becoming the seventh in the nation to recognize same-sex nuptials.

Catholic Culture: The nation’s constitutional court has not yet ruled on an appeal that claims the 2005 law is unconstitutional.

The Austin Daily Herald: A Hollandale man has been charged with marrying a woman even though he is already married to another. Wayne Allen DeMay, 41, faces one felony count of bigamy in Freeborn County District Court.

NY Daily News: The lesbians who became the poster couple for gays seeking to marry in California are now doing what countless straight couples have done before them — they’re splitting up.

GoPride.com: HB 5710, the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, provides that all laws of Illinois applicable to marriage apply equally to marriages of same-sex and different-sex couples.

Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy: Today’s Ninth Circuit decision striking down California’s Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage is unpersuasive because it claims that the law fails to meet even minimal “rational basis” scrutiny. Eugene Volokh does a good job of explaining why.

Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy: I have no idea what the Supreme Court might do in the Perry case. But my own sense is that Judges Walker and Reinhardt are not quite as clever as some people seem to think. Or, at the very least, the reasoning of their opinions don’t really matter very much.

CBS News: Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich on Tuesday decried the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for striking down California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage — both of them targeting the judiciary system for invoking what Gingrich described as a “radical overreach” of power.

The Hill: “Today’s decision by the 9th Circuit is another in a long line of radical activist rulings by this rogue circuit – and it is precisely why I have called for that circuit to be abolished and split up,” Santorum said in a statement Tuesday. “Marriage is defined and has always been defined as ‘one man and one woman.’ We simply cannot allow 50 different definitions of marriage.”

College Times – Arizona State University (McClatchy): Brian Raum, a lawyer for the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, a supporter of Proposition 8, said in a prepared statement, “We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way. But we are confident that the expressed will of the American people in favor of marriage will be upheld at the Supreme Court.”

Cal. Coast News: The court allowed time for proponents of the ban to file an appeal before the decision takes the force of law. Spokesmen for one such group, the Alliance Defense Fund, said an appeal would be forthcoming to the 9th Circuit’s full complement.

OneNewsNow.com: Thomasson expects the case to land in the nation’s highest court, with Justice Anthony Kennedy casting the deciding vote. In fact, Alliance Defense Fund says it will do exactly that (see accompanying video of ADF general counsel Alan Sears). [Brian Raum also quoted]

Rocky Mountain Collegian (MCT Howard Mintz): “No court should presume to redefine marriage,” said Brian Raum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. “We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way. But we are confident that the expressed will of the American people in favor of marriage will be upheld in the Supreme Court.”

Desert Sun (includes video): In a statement, ADF Senior Counsel Brian Raum called Tuesday’s ruling a “Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage.”
“No court should presume to redefine marriage. No court should undercut the democratic process by taking the power to preserve marriage out of the hands of the people,” Raum said.

Religion News Services on Christian Century: “No court should presume to redefine marriage. No court should undercut the democratic process by taking the power to preserve marriage out of the hands of the people,” said Brian Raum, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing an umbrella group of Prop 8 supporters known as ProtectMarriage.com.

USCCB: “Our society does not operate in an amoral or value-less vacuum,” said Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of Oakland, chairman of the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage. “To flourish, it must be infused with moral direction that is grounded in the truth. Of course, the true meaning of marriage, like the gift of human life, is ultimately not subject to a vote or court ruling. But in California, as in every other state where marriage has been put to a vote, the people justly upheld the truth of marriage. How tragic for California, for the nation, and especially for children, that this correctly-informed judgment has now been set aside.”

Maggie Gallagher at National Review Online, The Corner: Professor Eugene Volokh, a supporter of same-sex marriage as a policy matter, picks up the most radical part of the Ninth Circuit decision: Alliance Defense Fund was right. Civil Unions lead to gay marriage. Okay, he doesn’t say that part about ADF, but Prof. Volokh does say . . .

CNA: “No court should presume to redefine marriage,” Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel Brian Raum said Feb. 7. “No court should undercut the democratic process by taking the power to preserve marriage out of the hands of the people.”

Businessweek (Bloomberg): We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way,” Brian Raum, an attorney for proponents and senior counsel at the legal group Alliance Defense Fund, said in an e-mail. “But we are confident that the expressed will of the American people in favor of marriage will be upheld at the Supreme Court.”

San Jose Mercury News: “We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way,” Brian Raum, a spokesman for the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian non-profit, said it a widely e-mailed statement. “But we are confident that the expressed will of the American people in favor of marriage will be upheld at the Supreme Court. Every pro-marriage American should be pleased that this case can finally go to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Elizabeth Weise and Joan Biskupic at USATODAY.com (includes video): “No court should presume to redefine marriage. No court should undercut the democratic process by taking the power to preserve marriage out of the hands of the people,” said Brian Raum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal aid group that helped defend Proposition 8.

Lisa Leff at Connecticut Post (AP) (includes video): “We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way. But we are confident that the expressed will of the American people in favor of marriage will be upheld at the Supreme Court,” said Brian Raum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal aid group based in Arizona that helped defend Proposition 8.

Independent: “We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage – tried in San Francisco – turned out this way,” said Brian Raum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal aid group that helped defend the ban.

The Washington Post: “We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way. But we are confident that the expressed will of the American people in favor of marriage will be upheld at the Supreme Court.” Brian Raum, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal aid group that helped defend the ban.

Episcopal News Service: According to a statement posted on the website of the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal foundation that backed Proposition 8, the group was not surprised that “this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way.” But the group said it was confident the Supreme Court would uphold “the expressed will of the American people.”

WTAE.com: The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal foundation that backed Proposition 8, said it was not surprised that “this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way.” But it said it was …

Huffington Post: “We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage — tried in San Francisco — turned out this way,” said Brian Raum of the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal aid group that helped defend Proposition 8 in court. “But we are confident that the expressed will of the American people in favor of marriage will be upheld at the Supreme Court.”

ADF Attorney Brian Raum at National Review Online Bench Memos: No court can change the nature of men and women, or change the truth that the complementary union between husband and wife is different from any other human relationship. And no court should presume to redefine marriage — yet two of three judges in the oft-overturned Ninth Circuit have attempted to do so with Tuesday’s decision in the lawsuit over California’s marriage amendment, Perry v. Brown.

NewsBusters.org (includes video): During an interview with openly gay former Lieutenant Dan Choi, Heilemann asked former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele the following bigoted and offensive question: “Michael I’m curious about whether you think it would be okay in modern America, for there to be some states where black men could not marry white women? If local standards where that were unacceptable.”

News from The Associated Press: Yet legal experts seemed to think the panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals struck down the voter-approved ban on Tuesday purposefully served up its 2-1 opinion in a narrow way and seasoned it with established holdings so the Supreme Court would be less tempted to bite.

LaTimes.com: The narrow California-only approach adopted by the 9th Circuit means the high court might choose to steer clear of the dispute.

American Civil Liberties Union: The American Civil Liberties Union and the law firm Perkins Coie appeared in Alaska Superior Court yesterday seeking to allow transgender individuals to correct the sex marker on their driver’s licenses.

Stephen J. Heaney at Public Discourse: Personally opposed, but actively supporting…well, it’s complicated.

Christian Concern: Andrea Minichiello Williams spoke to the General Synod today (6 Feb), challenging the Church of England to take a stand for traditional marriage before it is too late.

Defenders of marriage in California will appeal Tuesday’s ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit that upheld a district judge’s decision against the state’s constitutional amendment protecting marriage.

No court should undercut the democratic process by taking the power to preserve marriage out of the hands of the people.

The opinion. Maggie Gallagher at National Review Online: Ninth Circuit to 7 Million California Voters: You Are Irrational Bigots Rick Hassen at Election Law Blog: Initial Thoughts on 9th Circuit Prop. 8 Decision How Appealing links to numerous reports. Orin …

Des Moines Register: Gov. Terry Branstadt’s administration said today it is appealing a Polk County District Court ruling that ordered state health officials to issue a birth certificate listing both members of a same-sex marriage as the legal parents of a 2-year-old girl.

Blankfein to Speak Out for Same-Sex Marriage – NYTimes.com (includes video): Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief of Goldman Sachs who has become a lightning rod for Wall Street critics, might seem an unlikely advocate for same-sex marriage. But his credentials — a public figure in a conservative industry — could make him a powerful voice for that cause.

Religion Clause: In Brown v. Herbert, (D UT, Feb. 3, 2012), a Utah federal district court held that members of an openly polygamous family (subjects of the television show Sister Wives) have standing to bring suit against the County Attorney to challenge the constitutionality of the state’s Anti-Bigamy Statute.

Bob Unruh at WorldNetDaily: “The American people deserve a court system that upholds the integrity of the judicial process,” said Austin R. Nimocks, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which has worked on the case. [more]

BaltimoreSun.com: The House bill went in with 56 co-sponsors, including House Speaker Michael E. Busch, who rarely puts his name on legislation

Seattle Times: Seattle-based Internet retailer Amazon.com said Wednesday it has joined other large Northwest companies to support legislation that would legalize gay marriage in Washington state.

LaTimes.com: An Iraq war veteran from Pasadena filed suit against the Department of Veterans Affairs on Wednesday over its refusal to pay her full disability benefits because she is in a same-sex marriage.

Washington Blade – “America’s Leading Gay News Source”: Following McCoy was Maryland Baptist ministers Rev. Dr. John Lund, and Rev. Dr. Nate Thomas, as well as Presbyterian pastor Bob Borger, former mega-church pastor Joel Peebles — who recently lost a court battle over control over his Jericho City of Praise Ministry — as well as some Catholic voices such as Pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Father Eric Arnold, and Maryland Catholic Conference’s Mary Ellen Russell. The testimony was concluded by an attorney specializing in representing churches and ministers, Erika Cole, the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty’s Eric Baxter, and the anti-gay Alliance Defense Fund’s Brian Raum.

The Washington Post: Brian W. Raum, senior counsel at the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, argued that protections should be extended to businesses, such as wedding planners, who do not believe in gay nuptials.

www.HometownAnnapolis.com – The Capital: The hearing attracted a few witnesses from out of state. Brian W. Raum, is senior counsel for the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund. He said the bill fails to protect “religious-minded” individuals and businesses, such as wedding planners and venue halls. “Certain kinds of businesses are going to be negatively affected,” he said. “They may be people of deep faith who don’t want to participate.” After the hearing, Raum seemed perturbed when asked to explain why businesses should be free to discriminate against same-sex couples, while discrimination on racial or religious grounds is illegal. “If you don’t see the difference between race-based discrimination and a protection for marriage between a man and a woman, then I can’t help you on that,” he said.

FRC: If Maryland’s same-sex “marriage” bill was controversial before, then the Governor’s wife just poured gasoline on the fire. In a speech last week, Catherine O’Malley certainly didn’t help her husband’s cause when she was caught on tape calling leaders “cowards” for supporting traditional marriage.

SeattlePI.com: The Senate will vote Wednesday on a measure to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington state. The Senate Rules Committee voted Tuesday to move the bill to a floor vote.

National Organization for Marriage v. McKee, No. 11-1196 (1st Cir. Jan. 31, 2012)

LIPEZ, Circuit Judge. This appeal presents the second chapter of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Maine laws imposing registration and disclosure requirements on entities that finance election-related advocacy. In a recent decision, we rejected claims made by one of the appellants here, the National Organization for Marriage (“NOM”), asserting that Maine’s laws regulating political action committees (“PACs”) are unconstitutionally vague and overbroad in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. See NOM v. McKee, 649 F.3d 34 (1st Cir. 2011) (“NOM I”). We now consider similar contentions raised by NOM and co-appellant American Principles in Action, Inc. (“APIA”) concerning the law applicable to ballot question committees (“BQCs”). See Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 21-A, § 1056-B. Our decision in NOM I effectively disposes of most of appellants’ challenges to Maine’s BQC requirements. On the only substantively distinct issue — the constitutionality of the definition of “contribution” in section 1056-B — we conclude that the BQC law, like the PAC laws, is constitutional. We thus affirm in its entirety the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the defendants.

Minnesota Public Radio News: he largest group working to defeat a proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage said it has raised more than $1.2 million in cash and in-kind contributions.

CBS Seattle (AP): A House committee on Monday advanced a proposal to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington state, and the Senate is expected to vote on its companion bill within days.

BBC News: Labour’s Johann Lamont, the Tories’ Ruth Davidson, the Lib Dems’ Willie Rennie and Scottish Green Patrick Harvie are united on the issue.

The Washington Post: Something unexpected happened on the way to North Carolina’s vote on a gay marriage ban this May: Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue decided not to run for re-election, meaning more voters who oppose the ban could turn out at the polls.

Concord Monitor: Cohn and others believe the bill may pass the House but does not have the two-thirds majority to override a potential veto by Democratic Gov. John Lynch, who signed the bill three years ago legalizing same-sex marriage.

The Washington Post: A poll by The Washington Post has found that half of Maryland residents now support legalizing same-sex marriage.

Baltimore Sun: “We ask the government to fix the problems we already have, not create new ones,” said the Rev. Michael DeAscanis, a Roman Catholic priest in St. Agnes and St. William of York Parish in Baltimore.