NOM BLOG

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Overrules the Will of the People

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 5, 2012

Contact: Anath Hartmann or Elizabeth Ray (703-683-5004)


"This is a gross miscarriage of justice that we trust the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court will rectify." —Brian Brown, NOM President—

National Organization for Marriage

Washington, D.C.—Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) released the following statement in response to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' decision denying an en banc hearing regarding Proposition 8:

"Today the full 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to re-hear the decision striking down Prop 8. Millions of Californians who gave their time and treasure to protect marriage deserve better," stated Brown. "We are calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve our democratic rights and overturn this action of judicial arrogance. As Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain, dissenting from the 9th Circuit's refusal to hear the case, stated:

Today our court has silenced any such respectful conversation. 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.

"This is a gross miscarriage of justice that we trust the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court will rectify," Brown added.

###

To schedule an interview with Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, please contact Elizabeth Ray (x130), [email protected], or Anath Hartmann, [email protected], at 703-683-5004.

12 Comments