My Dear Friends,

Prop 8 is headed to the full Ninth Circuit, as chief legal eagle Chuck Cooper and his crack legal team announced this week.

Here's the thing I want you to notice about how this case is unfolding.

First, as the New York Times recently admitted, even Judge Reinhardt and his liberal colleagues did not bite on the big arguments endorsed by Judge Walker and the alleged dream team of California Ted Olson and David Boies.

The majority did not accept the broadest argument pressed by Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, the celebrity legal team challenging Proposition 8, the voter initiative that overturned a California Supreme Court decision recognizing a right to same-sex marriage. Mr. Olson and Mr. Boies had urged the appeals court to find that the federal Constitution guarantees same-sex couples the right to marry—a rationale that would apply in all 50 states.

Instead Judge Reinhardt went for an allegedly "smaller" argument that applies only to California and a few other states: Once a state grants civil unions, it cannot retreat from gay marriage.

The gay legal establishment applauds this decision. Why? Because they believe it makes it less likely the case will end up being reviewed by the Supreme Court.

The New York Times lets the cat out of the bag: "Many gay rights advocates breathed a sigh of relief. They had long been wary of the Proposition 8 suit, preferring a state-by-state litigation and lobbying strategy over betting the farm on a case that was likely to end up in the United States Supreme Court. Some said they hoped the justices would now decline to hear an idiosyncratic case affecting a single state."

The gay legal establishment is desperately trying to keep the Supreme Court from reviewing their work.

Why? Because they don't really think they can win.

There is no federal Constitutional right to gay marriage. Gay people in the United States are hardly a powerless minority in need of the extraordinary special protections the Court developed, under the authority of the 14th Amendment, to prevent racial discrimination.

And they know it!

Please help us protect Prop 8 in court by giving generously to defend marriage, the rights of voters, and our Constitution from judges like Reinhardt.

Marriage in New Jersey is headed back to state court, after Gov. Chris Christie followed through on his promise to veto same-sex marriage.

This week a New Jersey judge ruled that the attorney general appointed by Chris Christie had offered arguments for marriage that were just too weak—"tradition"—and reinstated the argument made by same-sex couples that New Jersey's marriage law violates the federal Constitution—because New Jersey permits civil unions!

Marriage in Washington state is headed to the voters. Joseph Backholm is heading up the Family Policy Institute of Washington, and an initial poll from a Democratic polling firm suggests that even in this blue secular state, the people are not enthusiastic about gay marriage. Right now, voters say they are roughly divided over repealing the law—better than the initial polls out of California!

Rob Schwarzwalder, a senior vice-president of the Family Research Council, just announced a personal boycott of Starbucks over the company's endorsement and promotion of gay marriage in the state of Washington:

"[CEO Howard] Schultz's decrying of divisiveness rings a bit hollow when he plunges his company feet-first into the culture wars. ...Claiming to be post-political and then allowing one's chief corporate spokesperson to say that same-sex 'marriage' is 'is core to who we are and what we value as a company' are assertions that don't quite add up.

"So, for now, at least, I will buy my overpriced flavored coffees elsewhere. I dislike boycotts for a number of reasons, but am undertaking a personal one at present. Being for marriage, as understood in the Judeo-Christian context and Western tradition, is much more to 'the core of who I am' than a Starbucks iced mocha ever will be."

In Maryland pastors are asking their flocks to think about what's really core to who they are and what they value.

The Maryland senate will probably vote today on same-sex marriage. Maryland is one of the states which permit the people to veto bills passed by the legislature.

And pastors in Maryland, especially the black church, are showing that they will not give up marriage without a fight, as even the Washington Post makes clear:

Holding a Bible and an 8-month-old baby, the Rev. Nathaniel B. Thomas stood before his congregation at Forestville New Redeemer Baptist Church on Sunday and declared that last week's vote in the Maryland House of Delegates supporting same-sex marriage will spark a new battle.

"It ain't over until God says that it is over," Thomas said. "It took one woman to take prayer out of schools. There are too many weak-knee Christians. This is bigger than same-sex marriage. It is about changing society."

"This is really a wake-up call for the faith community," agreed the Rev. Elwood Gray, pastor of the Peace in the Valley Baptist Church in Silver Spring.

Money talks in politics. Fawning media coverage also helps. But at times like these we also know: There are forces in the universe greater than money or politics; and with your help we will take the fight for marriage to the people, all across this great land, and we will win.

Thank you! I'm so grateful to the thousands of you who have fought back, spoken for marriage, sacrificed your time and your treasure in defense of something so basic, so wonderful and so good: God's vision of marriage, the natural understanding of marriage, rooted in Scripture, yes, but also in common sense, history and human nature.

In other national news this week, the Human Rights Campaign is going on TV to make the absurd argument that supporting marriage is going to hurt the GOP candidates for president. (As you know, all the remaining candidates except Ron Paul have signed NOM's Marriage Pledge, promising to fight judge-lead efforts to impose gay marriage.) Of course the media echoes that view.

In the Wall Street Journal, Bill McGurn put his finger on what he calls "the most glaring double standard" in American politics:

When Barack Obama was campaigning for president in 2008, he declared that marriage is between a man and a woman. For the most part, his position was treated as a nonissue.

Now Rick Santorum is campaigning for president. He too says that marriage is between a man and a woman. What a different reaction he gets.

In the media, he means. That glaring double standard "helps explain why candidates with social views that are fairly conventional among ordinary Americans—the citizens of 31 states including California have rejected same-sex marriage when put to a vote—find themselves depicted as extreme."

Here's NOM's co-founder Maggie Gallagher on Al-Jazeera taking on the Human Rights Campaign's communication director and his absurd arguments with her usual grace:

When people start down the path of pushing a fundamental untruth, it's hard for them to figure out when to stop fibbing!

Federally, the Obama administration announced once again that it's punting on the defense of DOMA, this time in the context of same-sex couples in the military. Bill Duncan, director of the Marriage Law Foundation, read the letter Attorney General Eric Holder sent explaining Pres. Obama's position, and just scratched his head:

"It's all just made up. There's no part of the Constitution that talks about sexual orientation, the need for the government to give benefits to people," he said. "This is really troubling because it's a pattern. We're not dealing with an administration that adheres to the basic constitutional principle that the government is supposed to do only what it's given power to do by the Constitution."

Red Alert Politics, an online hub for young conservatives sponsored by The Weekly Standard and the Washington Examiner, interviewed our own Thomas Peters on using social media to fight for marriage and other good causes.

...In addition to blogging, Peters works at the National Organization for Marriage where he is overseeing a project to identify and encourage young activists who are pro-marriage.

Marriage could be a big issue this year, with a number of states—like Washington and Maryland— considering legislation to legalize gay marriage. Other states, including Minnesota and North Carolina, are trying to add traditional marriage to the state constitution.

As part of his work for NOM, Peters travels the country speaking to young people, and teaching them how to defend their views.

"We have to work hard at understanding our own conservative principles so we are better equipped to defend and promote them," he said.

And social media is key, he noted, "It contributes to a more robust and free democracy."

We are not giving up on any state, or any court—or on the next generation.

When the going gets tough—that's when we recognize that we have to depend on faith, hope, and above all love of our country and our Creator to see us through.

It's an honor to serve as your voice for our shared values.