Dear Marriage Supporter,
Ever since the US Supreme Court invalidated the federal definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman, we've expected lawsuits would be filed in federal court challenging state laws that also define marriage in the traditional way. Our expectations have certainly been met; over a dozen such lawsuits have now been filed.
What saddens me most about these lawsuits is that some of our elected officials entrusted with defending the laws of the land have chosen to abandon their oaths of office and state law on marriage. In fact, the Attorneys General of both Illinois and Pennsylvania have declared that they will not defend marriage in federal court. They are following the disgraceful path of Attorney General Eric Holder, who refused to defend our federal definition of marriage, and Jerry Brown in California, whose refusal to defend Proposition 8 led to the measure being invalidated by a single judge in San Francisco. The votes of over seven million citizens were eradicated by the view of one man — a homosexual judge involved in a long term gay relationship.
Who will hold these derelict politicians accountable for abandoning the law of marriage in order to curry favor with wealthy homosexual activists?
The constitution does not give state politicians the power to pick and choose which laws they will follow and which they will abandon. They are responsible for maintaining the rule of law by defending all the laws of the land. Yet somehow with gay marriage, they are able to get away with it.
Please help us make sure they don't get away with abandoning marriage by donating today.
But it's not just ambitious Attorneys General who have decided to take the law into their own hands. Now some local officials are getting into the act. The Register of Wills in Montgomery County Pennsylvania has decided the he will ignore state law limiting marriage to one man and one woman, and he's openly invited gay couples to seek marriage licenses in his county. He bases his decision on his own personal interpretation of the law after reading Justice Kennedy's majority opinion in the Windsor case concerning the federal definition of marriage.
If some local official were to take the law into his own hands and decide to rewrite a state environmental law, the left would scream in protest. But because this is about same-sex marriage, this utter lawlessness is in fact being celebrated in some quarters and the local official is being called a "hero!" No doubt many ambitious local politicians are waiting to see how this all turns out, so that they might be able to write their own marriage law for their own jurisdiction.
Who will hold these people accountable, if not you and I? Please help us do so.
As we've discussed, NOM is a lean organization with a small staff. Almost everything we raise goes into supporting critical programs to preserve marriage. We are stretched very thin. When new challenges arise like having state Attorneys General and local marriage officials openly defy the law on marriage, we are limited in what we can do to respond unless we are able to raise additional resources. With resources in hand, we can communicate directly with constituents of these elected officials, and ensure that they hear from the people of their jurisdiction. But without added resources, it's entirely possible that politicians who conspire to leave marriage defenseless may get away with it.
Please give today so that we can continue to fight for marriage and hold state and local politicians accountable for their actions in defending laws that define marriage as God created it — the union of one man and one woman.
Faithfully,
Brian S. Brown
