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11/13/2014

Yeah, that's smart, Brian Brown—'sharply condemn' the Supreme Court. Go ahead, buddy

by Jeremy Hooper

What do you do when you can't get the conservative-tilting United States Supreme Court to ever (like ever) come down the way you want them to on marriage cases? Well if you're the head of a conservative special interest group that very much needs that Supreme Court to see you as credible, reasonable, and rational, you apparently just go ahead an "sharply condemn" that very body that you very much need for what you will try your best to portray as some sort of judicial anarchy. Then you encourage something that much more closely resembles anarchy when you demand that the governor of a state simply flout the order and deny civil licenses to certain taxpayers who have every right to obtain them.

Just another day in the tragicomedy that is NOM:

Washington, D.C. — The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) today sharply condemned the United States Supreme Court for refusing to grant a stay of a federal judge's order imposing same-sex marriage in Kansas, and called on Governor Sam Brownback to order local clerks to refuse to issue marriage licenses that violate Kansas law defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

"The United States Supreme Court is creating a constitutional confrontation by refusing to hear an appeal of lower court decisions imposing same-sex marriage," said Brian Brown, NOM's president. "These lower court decisions are illegitimate. They violate the overarching constitutional principle that powers not specifically granted to the federal government are reserved to the states. The US Supreme Court has specifically recognized in the Windsor case that the regulation of marriage has always been a state function, and this remains so. Therefore, we call on Governor Sam Brownback to reject the idea that Kansas must abandon marriage because out of control federal judges say so."
...
"In blocking the issuance of marriage licenses that violate Kansas law, the Kansas Supreme Court has implicitly concluded that their marriage amendment does not violate the federal constitution, and rightly so," said Brown. "We urge Governor Brownback to use his authority to order local clerks to refuse to issue marriage licenses in violation of state law, as affirmed by the Supreme Court, in recognition that the state courts are not bound to reach the same judgment about the constitutionality of their laws as the lower federal courts. Although this obviously creates a lack of "harmony" between the state and federal courts on the subject, Kansas has every right to insist that this conflict be resolved by the Supreme Court, not an activist lower federal court. We encourage the Kansas Supreme Court to remain firm in upholding state laws, especially in light of the fact that numerous federal judges have upheld state marriage amendments like Kansas' including the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as district courts in Louisiana and Puerto Rico. We urge Governor Brownback and state Attorney General Schmidt to aggressively press their appeal to the US Supreme Court."
...
"We are rapidly approaching the inevitable confrontation between the sovereign right of states and the limited powers granted to the federal government. It is absolutely the right of the states to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, especially in light of the fact that the US Supreme Court has never held that traditional marriage violates the US constitution," Brown said. "The question for the people of Kansas, and indeed the nation, is whether we are going to allow an illegitimate order by federal judges to trump state law and the vote of 70% of the Kansas electorate. Fifty million Americans in over thirty states have voted in support of traditional marriage and it's time that states fight back to protect the decision of those voters."
FULL: National Organization for Marriage Urges Kansas To Refuse To Accept Gay Marriage Order and To Press Its Case To The United States Supreme Court [NOM]

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