Will 9th Circuit rule to protect marriage?

Perry v. Schwarzenegger What’s at Stake? A federal court decision overturning Proposition 8 would bring additional years of chaos and confusion in the legal battle to preserve marriage. It could impact marriage laws in up to 45 other states—including the 30 states where voters overwhelmingly adopted state constitutional amendments—along with eliminating the right of Californians to reaffirm marriage in their state constitution. Also at stake is…   The common sense idea that every child should have a right to be raised in a home with both a mom and a dad. Whether America will be forced to accept the bizarre, court-invented claim that men and women are interchangeable and that their unique qualities are meaningless in raising children. Whether Americans will be forced to surrender their freedom to set public policy to a small group of wealthy activists who wish to impose their will on a state or an entire nation. Whether marriage will remain a unique institution that promotes the important interests of children and society or be transformed into nothing but a legal arrangement based only on the demands of the adults involved. Whether voters may freely consider their own moral and religious views about marriage—or any other subject—when casting their ballots or be forced by violence and intimidation to remain silent about their deepest convictions. Whether voters may collectively decide through the democratic process that marriage between one man and woman should be protected in their state constitution.

WHO: ProtectMarriage.com legal defense team, including Alliance Defense Fund attorneys
WHAT: Oral arguments in Perry v. Schwarzenegger
WHEN: Monday, Dec. 6, at 10 a.m. PST
WHERE: James R. Browning U.S. Courthouse, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, 95 Seventh St., Courtroom 1, 3rd Floor, San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO — Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund who are part of the ProtectMarriage.com legal defense team will be available for media interviews Monday before and after oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in Perry v. Schwarzenegger. The case is on appeal after a federal judge in San Francisco ruled California’s marriage amendment unconstitutional on Aug. 4.

“What’s at stake in this case is bigger than California and bigger even than marriage,” said ADF Senior Counsel Brian Raum. “Americans are concerned about how marriage, voter rights, religious liberty, and other issues will be affected nationwide if this lawsuit is allowed to prevail. As was recently demonstrated on Election Day in Iowa and previously in 31 other states, Americans are tired of activists unhappy with the democratic process who therefore demand the courts conduct a hostile takeover of marriage for them. Americans understand that this lawsuit seeks to impose--through a San Francisco court--an agenda that that country has repeatedly rejected.”

Numerous groups filed friend-of-the-court briefs with the 9th Circuit in September in favor of California’s constitutional amendment, which affirms marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Among the briefs is one filed by 13 state attorneys general.

ADF attorneys are defending California’s amendment together with lead counsel Charles J. Cooper and Andrew Pugno, one of more than 1,800 attorneys in the ADF alliance and general counsel for ProtectMarriage.com, the official proponents and campaign committee of California’s Proposition 8.

On Aug. 16, the 9th Circuit granted a motion filed by the ProtectMarriage.com legal team that asked the court to stay the district court’s decision until the appellate court has time to hear the case. The district judge’s opinion made many unprecedented findings and legal conclusions, including one that calls marriage between a husband and wife “an artifact of a time when the genders were seen as having distinct roles in society and in marriage” and another that concludes that “parents’ genders are irrelevant to children’s developmental outcomes.”