Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver has
warned that in overturning gay marriage bans courts risk losing
legitimacy.
Staver and his wife, Anita, wrote
Florida's ban. Last week, six gay couples filed a legal challenge to
the state's 2008 voter-approved constitutional amendment.
(Related: Six
gay couples challenge Florida's gay marriage ban.)
Staver told Christian conservative
website OneNewsNow
that prior to the Supreme Court's overturning of the Defense of
Marriage Act (DOMA), which led to federal recognition of the
marriages of gay and lesbian couples, “these amendments would be
easy to defend.”
“Now it's certainly going to be a
battle all over the country as one after another are being
challenged,” Staver said.
Starver added that the
constitutionality of such amendments is “obvious.”
“Frankly I think that if we go down
this road and courts begin invalidating these marriage amendments, it
really begs the question as to whether the courts have lost their
legitimacy, because, obviously, there's no question from a
constitutional standpoint that marriage as a union of one man and one
woman being affirmed in law or state constitution is clearly
constitutional,” he said.