NOM BLOG

Category Archives: President Obama

The Politicization of the IRS Must Be Stopped

The politicization of the IRS (and other law enforcement agencies of the federal government) is a dangerous development, a threat to the liberty of every citizen, and it needs to be stopped.  NOM’s lawsuit is an important step in that effort.

Today NOM filed suit against the IRS for the criminal release of its confidential tax information which included dozens of names of major donors.  NOM’s chairman, Professor John Eastman has published an op-ed on Foxnews.com describing the issue:

Prof. John EastmanWherever one stands on the marriage issue, we should all be able to agree that the people responsible for these abuses by the IRS must be held to account.  The IRS is simply too powerful, with too much access to our most private information, to become a tool in the political fights of the day.

We have been down this road before.  One of the Articles of Impeachment that had been drawn up against President Richard Nixon before he resigned in 1974 charged that Nixon “endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law.”  Yet the Department of Justice, the Inspector General at the Treasury Department, and the Internal Revenue Service itself have all circled the wagons to protect the felon or felons who illegally disclosed NOM’s tax return.

So today, NOM is filing suit against the IRS, as permitted by federal law, to obtain compensation for the injuries it suffered as a result of these felonies.

Read Dr. Eastman's entire piece here.

Treasury Department and IRS To Recognize Same-Sex Marriages in States That Don't Allow Same-Sex Marriage

Continuing a pattern of lawlessness across the nation, the IRS and U.S. Treasury Department have also overstepped their authority by granting federal tax treatment to "married" same-sex couples. As our president Brian Brown pointed out yesterday, "The Obama administration is intent on forcing same-sex 'marriage' on an unwilling public. Congress alone has the responsibility of determining federal tax law."

Same-sex couples who get a marriage license in a state that has redefined marriage to include same-sex couples, but who live in a state that does not recognize their marriage, will be treated as a married couple for federal tax purposes, the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service announced Thursday.

The ruling does not apply to state taxes. So, a same-sex couple that has been married in a state that has redefined marriage, but lives in a state that has not redefined marriage, would file as married for their federal taxes and as single for their state taxes. -Christian Post

Capitol

IRS Scandal Smoking Gun Found in House Testimony this Week

As much of official Washington—and the rest of the nation for that matter—are in full summer malaise mode, a smoking gun has emerged in the on-going investigation of the Internal Revenue Service’s illegal targeting of conservative and tea party patriot groups.

Peggy Noonan’s Wall Street Journal commentary cuts through the confusion and monotony of this week’s congressional hearings to recap the key points that connect the IRS scandal to its Washington headquarters and its chief counsel.

Carter-Hull-TestifiesSeveral IRS personnel’s testimony confirmed Lois Lerner’s role as one of the ring leaders, but the real shocker came when 48-year IRS veteran Carter Hull stated that he was told to send the targeted groups’ applications directly to Chief Counsel William Wilkins, who is one of only two political appointees made to the department by Pres. Barack Obama.

You can read Noonan’s complete commentary, including why she thinks these developments have some Washington leaders really worried, here.

Marriage Reduces Likelihood of Child Poverty by 82 Percent

Heritage’s blog, The Foundry, recently shared an illuminating chart (see below) that demonstrates the connection between child poverty and being raised in single-mother households.

Today, one out of every four children lives with only his or her mother. Of those children in single-mother homes, 58 percent are impoverished. In contrast, as Heritage’s Robert Rector points out, marriage reduces the probability of child poverty by 82 percent. Growing up with a married father can have significant impact on a child’s economic, social, and psychological well-being.

“[R]edefining marriage further distances marriage from the needs of children and denies the importance of mothers and fathers. Redefining marriage rejects as a matter of policy the ideal that children need a mother and a father,” explains Heritage’s Ryan T. Anderson. “Redefining marriage diminishes the social pressures for husbands to remain with their wives and children, and for men and women to marry before having children,” he continues.

Read more.

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Video: Kenyan Deputy President Strongly Rebuffs Obama on Gay Marriage

LifeSiteNews:

A second African president has rebuffed President Barack Obama's promotion of homosexuality in foreign relations during his $100 million tour of the continent.

Obama said he respects “people's personal views and their religious faith, et cetera,” but “when it comes to how the state treats people, how the law treats people,” he believes the equality of homosexuality and the traditional family is“a principle that I think applies universally.”

Deputy President of Kenya William Ruto responded during Sunday Mass that Kenya is committed to the nuclear family as taught by the Scriptures.

“Those who believe in other things, that is their business,” Ruto said at St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Maili Kumi. “We believe in God.”

“This nation, the nation of Kenya,” he said, is “sovereign and God-fearing.”

Anderson on Why Government Isn't in the Love Business

Ryan Anderson writes for Heritage's Foundry blog:

At a reception last week for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month, President Obama reiterated his support for the redefinition of marriage, claiming inspiration from the Declaration of Independence:

And it’s something that can be traced back to our Declaration of Independence—the fundamental principle that all of us are created equal. And as I said in my Inaugural Address, if we truly are created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.

Heart“The love we commit to one another,” as such, is none of the government’s business. The government isn’t in the business of affirming our loves. Rather, it leaves consenting adults free to live and love as they choose.

And consenting adults are free to do so. Contrary to what some say, there is no ban on same-sex relationships. Nothing about them is illegal. In all 50 states, two people of the same sex may choose to live together, choose to join a religious community that blesses their relationship, and choose a workplace offering joint benefits.

What’s at issue is whether the Supreme Court will redefine marriage—and then force every citizen, religious institution, and business to treat same-sex relationships as if they are marriages. At issue is whether the government will trample the real civil rights of Americans (such as religious liberty) as it coerces and compels them to recognize and affirm same-sex relationships as marriages.

Top of Drudge: Claim: Obama Co-Chair Attacked Romney With Leaked IRS Docs

Our press release yesterday is now top news on Drudge Report this morning:

Screen shot 2013-05-15 at 9.18.55 AM

That headline links to this story on Brietbart.com:

One of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign co-chairmen used a leaked document from the IRS to attack GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney during the 2012 election, according to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).

NOM, a pro-traditional marriage organization, claims the IRS leaked their 2008 confidential financial documents to the rival Human Rights Campaign. Those NOM documents were published on the Huffington Post on March 30, 2012. At that time, Joe Solmonese, a left-wing activist and Huffington Post contributor, was the president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Solmonese was also a 2012 Obama campaign co-chairman.

... “Not only has Romney signed NOM’s radical marriage pledge, now we know he’s one of the donors that NOM has been so desperate to keep secret all these years,” Solmonese added.

Solmonese resigned his position at HRC the next day and took up a position as an Obama campaign co-chair.

Politico: NOM Calls for Hearing After IRS Flap

Our press release today on the growing IRS scandal and its connection to what happened to our private tax return is gaining attention -- including on capitol hill and Politico:

The National Organization for Marriage hopes revelations about the IRS unfairly targeting conservative groups can revitalize an investigation into who leaked its donor information last year.

“This is what happens in the Soviet Union,” NOM President Brian Brown told POLITICO on Monday. “This is not what happens in the United States of America.”

In April 2012, the Huffington Post and the Human Rights Campaign posted documents showing GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney donated $10,000 to NOM in 2008. The anti-gay marriage group immediately cried foul and called for the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration — the same investigators who are set to release a report on the IRS targeting later this week — to investigate, accusing IRS employees of leaking the documents.

... Brown said the group wants a congressional hearing to look into the document release, since the group’s attempts to use the Freedom of Information Act to stay updated on the case have been unsuccessful.

“Without a congressional hearing and Congress’ subpoena power, where are we?” Brown asked. “All we’re getting is what [the IRS] wants to say.”

NOM's Peters: "We Expect the Supreme Court to Exonerate the Votes of Over 7 million Californians to Protect Marriage."

Our Communications Director Thomas Peters released a brief statement to the media as the news broke yesterday that President Obama has reversed himself once again on marriage by urging the Supreme Court to strike down Proposition 8:

"We expect the Supreme Court to exonerate the votes of over 7 million Californians to protect marriage. The President is clearly fulfilling a campaign promise to wealthy gay marriage donors. There is no right to redefine marriage in our Constitution.”

His statement was picked up by the Associated Press, the Drudge Report, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, ABC News, Foxnews.com, NPR, and dozens of other media outlets.

Peters will be on CNN tomorrow morning at 8:15AM to add more comments.

We continue to urge all supporters of marriage at this critical time to make plans now to come to Washington, D.C. for the March for Marriage on March 26, the day the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Proposition 8 case.

House GOP to SCOTUS: Obama Administration Has No Right to Attack DOMA

Lyle Denniston of the SCOTUS blog on the the House GOP pointing out to SCOTUS that the Obama administration is trying to strike down DOMA after refusing to defend it:

The Republican leaders of the House of Representatives urged the Supreme Court on Friday to cast aside the Obama administration’s appeal on the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, though that already has been granted review, and to then take on the dispute in the GOP chiefs’ own case in defense of the law.

In a brief answering jurisdictional questions raised by the Court when it took on the DOMA dispute, the House’s Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) argued that it has a right under the Constitution’s Article III to be in court in DOMA cases.  It noted that the administration has stopped defending the law and instead is attacking it.

The new filing also contended that the New York woman who was at the center of the case the Court is reviewing does not have a right to appeal.  Both the administration and Ms. Windsor won in lower courts, getting everything that they wanted out of the controversy, and thus have given up their right to pursue the case in the Supreme Court.

“Without the House’s participation,” the document said, “it is hard to see how there is any case or controversy here at all.  Both Ms. Windsor and the executive agree that DOMA is unconstitutional and that Ms. Windsor was entitled to a refund [for an estate tax she paid].  And the lower courts granted them all the relief they requested.  Only the House’s intervention provides the adverseness that Article III demands.”

Politico: W.H. Urges Supreme Court to Strike Down DOMA

It remains to be seen if the White House will also call on the Supreme Court to strike down Proposition 8:

The Obama administration on Friday urged the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act.

By forcing a federal definition of “spouse” and “marriage,” the administration argued in a brief, DOMA “violates the fundamental constitutional guarantee of equal protection. The law denies to tens of thousands of same-sex couples who are legally married under state law an array of important federal benefits that are available to legally married opposite-sex couples.”

The Obama administration has been urging courts to strike down DOMA for two years. Friday was the deadline to file briefs in the challenge to the 1996 law, scheduled to be heard March 27. (Politico)

FOIA Request Reveals Cozy Relationship Between DoJ and SPLC

LifeSiteNews:

Documents uncovered from a Freedom of Information Act request show the Obama administration's Department of Justice enjoys a close relationship with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that brands principled opposition to homosexuality “hate.”

The SPLC has built an elaborate fundraising empire by branding mainstream Christian ministries – including the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, and Concerned Women for America – as “hate groups” for opposing homosexuality.

The legal watchdog Judicial Watch filed the request to see what effect SPLC's designation of “hate groups” had on the government. The two-dozen pages of e-mails it received reveal views of DOJ employees that border on adulation.

The department invited co-founder Morris Dees to appear as the featured speaker at a July 31, 2012, “Diversity Training Event.” The Assistant Attorney General's office “wants to take Morris out to lunch” before his simulcast remarks, entitled “With Justice for All,” one e-mail stated.

A “training blurb” stated that the event “qualifies for mandatory annual diversity training.”

“I will pick you [Morris Dees] up at the airport July 30,” DOJ employee Barry Kowalski wrote Dees in an e-mail. “Would you go out to dinner with my wife and me and our two teenage daughters that first night? The girls need some inspiration from a master of inspiration,” he gushed.

National Organization for Marriage Reacts to President Obama’s Immigration Proposal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 31, 2013

Contact: Elizabeth Ray or Jen Campbell (703-683-5004)


National Organization for Marriage

Washington, D.C. — Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), released the following statement in regards to President Obama’s immigration proposal:

"This is yet another example of the President playing politics rather than enforcing our nation’s laws and offering a true, workable solution. First, his Administration threw in the towel and refused to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Then, he came out of the closet on gay marriage. Now, he is apparently proposing a direct violation of DOMA, currying added favor with gay activists, many of whom have lavished contributions on his reelection campaign. Our nation has a lot of serious issues to resolve concerning immigration policy, but providing a safe haven for gays and lesbians from foreign countries in violation of American law is not one of them. Responsible immigration reform includes protecting America’s borders, providing access to needed workers, keeping terrorists out of our country and determining what to do with the millions of people already here illegally. This proposal from President Obama concerning homosexual immigration is not serious immigration reform."

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To schedule an interview with Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, please contact Elizabeth Ray (x130), [email protected], or Jen Campbell (x145), [email protected], at 703-683-5004.

Paid for by The National Organization for Marriage, Brian Brown, president. 2029 K Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. New § 68A.405(1)(f) & (h).

Brian Brown on Obama, Divider-in-Chief on Marriage

Brian Brown's op-ed on the President's choice to use his inaugural address to push for a redefinition of marriage has been published in CNS News:

"... Marriage as it has been defined throughout history - as the union of one man and one woman - is a great cause of unity for any culture, including our own. We know all too well what happens to society when marriage breaks down and government interferes with the rights of men and women to come together and form healthy, lifelong marriages.  The President's obsession with redefining marriage has prevented him in his first term from doing anything of substance to support and advance the institution of marriage for the vast majority of Americans. That is where his emphasis should be. 

Americans remain united in support of the commonsense definition of marriage. A poll taken after the most recent elections showed that 60% of Americans agree that marriage is between one man and one woman. Twenty percent of Americans in that same poll said marriage was one of their top three issues. The vast majority of states define marriage as the union of husband and wife and the vast majority of Americans who have been given a chance to vote on the question have supported that definition as well.

... We eagerly await the Supreme Court's decision on the question of whether Americans have a right to protect marriage in law.

In the meantime, Americans should unite in support of the commonsense definition of marriage. The longer our leaders insist on throwing their words and weight behind the movement to redefine marriage the more they will continue to divide our beloved nation."

NOM Chairman John Eastman on Obama's Gay Couples Immigration Destraction

Our Chairman Prof. John Eastman was interviewed briefly by NBC Latino yesterday:

"...DOMA proponents see the president’s decision to roll in a provision for bi-national same-sex couples as misguided.

“If the president is putting immigration as his highest priority, why would he muddy the waters with a proposal that violates current federal law?” says John Eastman, president of the National Organization for Marriage. “I guarantee there’ll be a fight if he’s trying to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. I think it demonstrates he’s not serious about immigration reform.”

Am immigration reform blueprint released by the “Gang of Eight,” as the group of Republican and Democratic senators have come to be known, detailed major shifts on immigration but did not refer to measures for same-sex couples."