NOM BLOG

Brian Brown to NPR: On Marriage, States Matter for Supreme Court

 

Our President Brian Brown interviewed by NPR as part of a segment about the endgame for the marriage debate:

... Voters in Minnesota and North Carolina will consider a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, while lawmakers in New Hampshire — a state where same-sex marriage has been legal for two years now — are considering a repeal.

A game-changer could come in the form of a couple of decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court, which may soon rule on California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage and on a challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which binds government to only recognize marriages between a man and a woman.

Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage says what states do now could influence the court's decisions.

"Given that we have a Roe v. Wade-type decision, the state fights become even more important because some of the justices don't like to have the law be too far ahead of where the public is," Brown says.

But even a Supreme Court decision is unlikely to end the debate. If the justices find same-sex marriage bans to be unconstitutional, opponents say they'll just redouble their efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution.

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