Brian Brown, president of the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM), on Friday claimed a constitutional
right to ban gay marriage.
In a blog post criticizing a decision
by the U.S. Justice Department to recognize the more than 1,300
marriages of gay couples which took place in Utah over 17 days
bookended by a federal judge's ruling striking down the state's ban
and the Supreme Court putting that order on hold as an appeal is
sought, Brown claimed that the Obama administration was trampling
over Utah's constitutional right to decide the issue.
“It is outrageous that the Justice
Department would move so brazenly and publicly to undermine Utah's
standing constitutional provision regulating marriage as the union of
one man and one woman,” Brown wrote. “It is the right of states
to determine marriage, and the voters and legislature of Utah have
done just that. Their right to do so is encoded in the U.S.
Constitution, and was explicitly upheld by the Supreme Court this
summer in the Windsor decision. But with this move, the
Department of Justice under this Administration signals that it
simply has no regard for the Constitution and the rule of law.”
Friday's
announcement came two days after Utah officials announced they
would not recognize the marriage licenses as an appeal moves forward,
saying that the marriages were “on hold.”
“The Justice Department's edict today
expressly contradicts the determination of Utah's Governor and
Attorney General, and represents one of the most significant
overreaches of federal authority imaginable,” Brown
added. “Furthermore, Attorney General Eric Holder is now doing
the very thing that the Supreme Court in Windsor v. United States
held the federal government could not do – use a definition of
marriage for federal law purposes that did not respect the policy
choices made by the individual states. This determination should be
reversed if the State of Utah's sovereignty – or really any state's
– is to be upheld and respected.”