Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Number of clubhouse Republicans signing amicus brief for same sex marriage may sway case says Scotus blog chief. Not supporting case will be considered 'hate'

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2/25/13, "Republicans Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage," NY Times, Stolberg

"Dozens of prominent Republicans — including top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress — have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marry....

The Proposition 8 case already has a powerful conservative supporter: Theodore B. Olson, the former solicitor general under Mr. Bush and one of the suit’s two lead lawyers. The amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief is being filed with Mr. Olson’s blessing. It argues, as he does, that same-sex marriage promotes family values by allowing children of gay couples to grow up in two-parent homes, and that it advances conservative values of “limited government and maximizing individual freedom.” 

Legal analysts said the brief had the potential to sway conservative justices as much for the prominent names attached to it as for its legal arguments. The list of signers includes a string of Republican officials and influential thinkers — 75 as of Monday evening — who are not ordinarily associated with gay rights advocacy, including some who are speaking out for the first time and others who have changed their previous positions. 

Among them are Meg Whitman, who supported Proposition 8 when she ran for California governor; 

Richard Hanna of New York; 
Stephen J. Hadley, a Bush national security adviser; 
Carlos Gutierrez, a commerce secretary to Mr. Bush; 
James B. Comey, a top Bush Justice Department official; 
David A. Stockman, President Ronald Reagan’s first budget director; and 
Deborah Pryce, a former member of the House Republican leadership from Ohio who is retired from Congress....

Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former Utah governor, who favored civil unions but opposed same-sex marriage during his 2012 presidential bid, also signed. Last week, Mr. Huntsman announced his new position in an article titled “Marriage Equality Is a Conservative Cause,” a sign that the 2016 Republican presidential candidates could be divided on the issue for the first time....

The presence of so many well-known former officials — including 

Christine Todd Whitman, former governor of New Jersey, and 
William Weld and 
Jane Swift, both former governors of Massachusetts — 

suggests that once Republicans are out of public life they feel freer to speak out against the party’s official platform, which calls for amending the Constitution to define marriage as “the union of one man and one woman.”...

“We are trying to say to the court that we are judicial and political conservatives, and it is consistent with our values and philosophy for you to overturn Proposition 8,” said Ken Mehlman, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, who came out as gay several years ago. He is on the board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which brought the California suit, and has spent months in quiet conversations with fellow Republicans to gather signatures for the brief. ...

Tom Goldstein, publisher of Scotusblog, a Web site that analyzes Supreme Court cases, said the amicus filing “has the potential to break through and make a real difference.” 

He added: “The person who is going to decide this case, if it’s going to be close, is going to be a conservative justice who respects traditional marriage but nonetheless is sympathetic to the claims that this is just another form of hatred. If you’re trying to persuade someone like that, you can’t persuade them from the perspective of gay rights advocacy.”"

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Ed. note: More recent articles say 130 Republicans have signed an amicus brief. When I find a link listing their names I'll post it for the record.


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