Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage predicted that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the ruling that struck down Proposition 8 in California, and will “in this instance rule in our favor” and against marriage equality. He also seemed be preparing for voters in at least one state this fall -- of the four voting on gay marriage -- possibly backing marriage equality, observing, “say we were to lose one -- but still, we lost [just] one.”
The Supreme Court could announce as early as tomorrow that it will hear an appeal to the ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the decision by a federal judge that Prop 8, the ballot initiative that banned marriage for gays and lesbians in California, is unconstitutional. If the court does not take the case, a decision that would likely not be final until next week, marriages for gays and lesbians would resume in California. (However, one report suggests that the Supreme Court may put off a decision on whether or not to take the Prop 8 case and other LGBT rights cases until after the election.)
Some legal observers believe the court will let the 9th Circuit ruling on Prop 8 stand, but will take one of the challenges before it to federal rulings that have struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents federal recognition of same-sex marriage in those states which grant it. But Brown disagreed.
“I’m confident -- I’m very confident -- that they will take the [Prop 8] case,” Brown said in an interview for my SiriusXM OutQ show during the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August. “I don’t think the court is going to find some hidden right to same-sex marriage deeply embedded in our Constitution. So, I think we’re going to win.”
And he’s certain that marriage equality opponents will prevail in the challenges to DOMA as well.
“The DOMA cases too, I think we’ll win,” he said. “This needs to be resolved at the federal level.”
Of the four states -- Maine, Maryland, Washington and Minnesota -- where gay marriage is on the ballot in November and where gay activists, to varying degrees, have felt confident about polling, Brown said: “I think we’re going to win all four. But say we were to lose one -- but still, we lost [just] one. Will there be a huge amount of media saying the country now supports same-sex marriage? Of course there will. The mainstream media is in the pocket of the same-sex marriage advocates. Anyone who looks as an objective observer will still be able to say, if we lose one state, the record still shows that
[we’ve] won, whatever, 35 out of 36.”
Brown also weighed in the successful battle to preserve a federal marriage amendment in the Republican Party’s platform this year at the convention. And he discussed President Obama’s coming out for marriage equality and the Democratic Party platform backing it, which he said is “an absolute disaster for the future of the party.”
Listen to the full interview below:
Before You Go
