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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