Dear Marriage Supporter,
Just hours ago, the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit denied an en banc rehearing of this past February's decision striking down California's Proposition 8.
The decision clears the way for an immediate petition to the United States Supreme Court, and we need your help.
The majority decision authored by Stephen Reinhardt last February (the most overturned judge on the most overturned court in America) literally dismissed the history of legal precedent on marriage—only including it in a footnote in his decision!
And now a majority of judges on the Ninth Circuit have refused even to reconsider his ruling.
Judge O'Scannlain's dissent to today's ruling bluntly criticized the court's refusal. Noting President Obama's recent call for the "conversation [to] continue in a respectful way," he put it perfectly: "Today our court has silenced any such respectful conversation."
O'Scannlain continued:
Based on a two-judge majority's gross misapplication of Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620 (1996), we have now declared that animus must have been the only conceivable motivation for a sovereign State to have remained committed to a definition of marriage that has existed for millennia, Perry v. Brown, 671 F.3d 1052, 1082 (9th Cir. 2012). Even worse, we have overruled the will of seven million California Proposition 8 voters based on a reading of Romer that would be unrecognizable to the Justices who joined it, to those who dissented from it, and to the judges from sister circuits who have since interpreted it. We should not have so roundly trumped California's democratic process without at least discussing this unparalleled decision as an en banc court.
Disagreeing with same-sex marriage is animus and bigotry. The votes of 7 million Californians are worthless. Open democracy is dying.
My friends, this is what Judge Walker's and Judge Reinhardt's decisions mean.
Help us stop this once and for all at the Supreme Court!
We have already donated over $400,000 to help defend Prop 8...but so much more is needed to ensure we are able to mount the best defense possible in the coming months!
Remember, the Proposition 8 case is about more than just California.
If we allow this ruling to stand, then every single legal protection for marriage in every single state is in danger...
...and the day will soon come when same-sex marriage is the law of the land all across America.
Please help us right this wrong and let the voices and votes of over 7 million Californians be heard, once and for all!
God bless you for all that you do. Together, with your help, we will overcome.
To learn more about Prop8, visit www.prop8case.com.
37 Comments
Looks like NOM might have to throw its own kiki.
Let's take a minute to praise 6.4 million who had faith in what was right, and certainly many of that 7 million have joined them.
SCOTUS, here we come!
Pete,
"Let's take a minute to praise 6.4 million who had faith in what was right..."
You need to copy and save this for your post SCOTUS ruling rebuttal. It will be an appropriate conciliation statement for when your cruise down the river Denial meets its tragic and inevitable end.
An exclamation point in the headline? An exclamation point!
Who requested the en banc hearing anyway? I had thought that it was NOM.
Why celebrate? Justice Kennedy was the one who unleashed this all in Lawrence v. Texas. I oppose same-sex marriage, but I have enormous fear that Proposition 8 — and possibly all State bans on same-sex marriage — will be struck down 5-4. Unless Justice Breyer can somehow be corralled into joining our side.
Otherwise, the only hope is a Federal Marriage Amendment.
@Dovie E
I don't see anything in Lawrence that would justify upholding Walker, though.
Oh NOM, prepare to lose by bilking more donations.
6 to 3; SCOTUS upholds Baker, 138 years of precedence, 236 years of history and tradition, and the right of “We the People” to control our own fate.
Book it!
And even in Lawrence Kennedy stated that the opinion did not speak to whether the state must recognize relationships homosexuals choose to enter.
Because a loss after loss after loss after loss guarantees a win at SCOTUS.
@Dovie: Right - because 2/3 of the country is going to vote to ban marriage equality in the Constitution. You're wise to feel hopeless.
...the right of “We the People” to control our own fate...
How'd that whole will of the people thing work out for you wit interracial marriage? Baker will be your Pace. I promise you.
We the people overturned racism in marriage; just like we the people will turn back the barbarians attacking the source of our freedom. Equating your depravity with race is insulting to all those who risked their very lives to keep the promises enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.
"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world."
Considering how the vast majority of the people opposed racism in marriage it appears to have worked out quite well, but lets not weigh you down with the facts again.
Actually, Randy - the year AFTER "Loving", only 20% of Americans approved of interracial marriage, with 72% still opposed. Recent polls have shown in the range of 52% approval for marriage equality. But let's not weigh you down with reality again: http://www.pensitoreview.com/2010/02/19/gay-marriage-support-double-approval-of-mixed-marriage-in-1968-2/
Actually 14th,
In 1967 only 16 States had anti-miscegenation laws -over twice as many then those that allow marriage corruption today. Let’s get away from the bogus polls you like to throw out and try sticking with the actuals; like the 32-0 fact you refuse to acknowledge.
NOM, we have 90 days to make an appeal. Let's do it.
Brian I love what you wrote in your blog:
"..and the day will soon come when same-sex marriage is the law of the land all across America."
True very, very true; and what a wonderful day that will be!
Excellent news out of Wisconsin tonight.
The polls...(gasp!) were wrong again.
There's something big coming in November, and the pollsters will never see it coming.
They wouldn't want to, anyway......
A wonderful day when Satan gets his way? Hardly.
It's a shame that we can't get a two-fer at SCOTUS and get Lawrence overturned. Lawrence was a bad decision and led to all of the talk about homosexuality that our kids have to endure and the rest of us have to witness in all forms of homosexual-dominated media.
I stopped going to the CNN site because everyday it has a pro-homosexual article as the dominate story. It's all gay all the time at GayNN thanks to Lawrence v. Texas.
Overcame,
What we will get from SCOTUS is clarification that Lawrence was about the right of association and not about the right to mandate that the meaning of words must change to accommodate a well heeled horde of decadent miscreants.
SCOTUS must demonstrate that they have not taken sides in the culture war if they are to remain relevant.
Jeez, Overcame, you really have yet to overcome!
Isn't that the truth...
Doug/Stefan -
If I can stop one kid - just one - from being indoctrinated into a homosexual lifestyle and being subjected to all of the risks associated with that lifestyle - not to mention the public stigma that will always be associated with it - I've done a great service.
I'm like an ex-smoker, dude.
And it's Doug for the win!
14th, Doug, and Stefan,
You silly fella’s should change the name of your band to the 'lies and swear-to-it's.' I'm open to suggestions, but I believe 'The Three Stooges' is already spoken for.
It would have gone to the SCOTUS faster if Prop 8 proponents hadn't asked for the en banc hearing.
Not to worry, Scott.
What we had hoped to gain from an en band hearing has just been handed to us in spades in the hilariously, directly contradictory arguments of the First Circuit against DOMA.
It has all worked out perfectly for us, now we plow the marriage corruption movement down in the elections this November, defeat Obama, and sit back and watch the foundational legal defect of the marriage corrupters exposed at SCOTUS:
The inability top count to five.
It's been a good fight and I have never been more confident that we have it in our grasp to win it in definitive fashion over the next twelve months.
Poor NOM. Quite a record of court losses, plus the covering up of your contributions in Maine, what a stellar organization of hate and lies.
Will be hilarious when SCOTUS declines to take up something that is narrow in scope limited to one state. SCOTUS will go for DOMA, not this - count on it.
Randy E. King:
Tell that to those four deviants on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, who used Lawrence as the basis for their decision in Goodridge.
14th Amend:
There are ways to get a Federal Amendment proposed and ratified, trust me.
OvercameSSA:
Lawrence was a terrible decision, and it was sick of the Court to overturn the very young precedent of Bowers.
Bill:
I fully understand how essential it is to your team that Walker and Reinhardt's hysterical botch job never reach SCOTUS.
But it will.
This is very bad news for you, and very good news for us.
In the meantime, we will win, again, in all states where marriage corruption is placed before the voters.
Count on it
Meanwhile, another court finds DOMA unconstitutional today. America marches forward. We shall overcome.
This was to be expected. Lib judges in Boston and San Francisco attempting to undermine marriage. Color me not shocked.
The ninth circus is the most overturned appeals court in America.
They have been on the wrong side if history so
many times, I've lost count.
The faster this gets to the SCOTUS and is rightfully upheld, the better off we will all be.
Indeed, Byrd.
It will require future attention, after the marriage battle is won- this question of how a conspiracy of social engineers in robes managed to flout the will of the people so cynically and for so long.
This is a great problem, going forward. for our free society.
It will, in due time, have to be addressed.
I'm glad this reads "Dear Marriage Supporter," because I do support marriage.
I support marriage equality for everyone! Man + woman, man + man, woman + woman. Whatevs. It all deserves equal recognition under the law.
Now that's support for marriage!!