Brian Brown, president of the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM), told supporters on Tuesday that the
Supreme Court is “one retirement away” from ending marriage
equality.
For roughly a decade, NOM has fought
against increasing support for such unions. The group has backed
state laws and constitutional amendments defining marriage as a
heterosexual union, supported lawmakers – including presidential
candidates – opposed to marriage equality and intervened in court
cases. NOM has also backed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution
which would prohibit same-sex marriage and laws which would undermine
the Supreme Court's 2015 landmark ruling that found that gay and
lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry.
In a fundraising email, Brown told
supporters that he is working to keep the issue “before the
American public” so that bans on same-sex marriage “can be
restored to our laws at the earliest possible moment,” which he
suggested could happen as early as the next Supreme Court retirement.
“Many people in the elite are fond of
saying that 'marriage is lost,' but marriage is not lost,” Brown
wrote. “[M]arriage is not 'lost' as a public policy issue
because the rationale used by the Supreme Court in redefining
marriage in 2015 was so specious, so utterly lacking in judicial
precedent and legal foundation, that the retirement of a single
justice who voted to redefine marriage could totally upend the
situation and bring marriage back before the Supreme Court with a
realistic opportunity to restore marriage.”
“And of course, it's no secret that
most of the liberal justices are quite elderly and the cold reality
of life is that nobody lives forever,” he added.