The National Organization for Marriage
(NOM) has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put on hold a federal
court's order striking down Oregon's ban on gay marriage.
On Monday, May 19, U.S. District Judge
Michael McShane declared Oregon's 2004 voter-approved constitutional
amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples invalid.
The state, which sided with plaintiffs
in the case, immediately implemented McShane's order, making Oregon
the 18th state to allow gay couples to marry.
McShane denied NOM's last minute
request to intervene in the case, and the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals in San Francisco denied NOM's request to stay proceedings in
the case or stay the ruling.
On Monday, NOM announced it was taking
its request to the highest court in the land, asking Justice Anthony
Kennedy to stay McShane's ruling so it may pursue a motion before the
appellate court to intervene in the case.
“This case is an ugly spectacle of
the state refusing to defend the sovereign act of its voters to
define marriage as the union of one man and one woman and instead
working jointly with the plaintiffs to redefine marriage,” said
NOM Chairman John Eastman.
NOM said that without the ban many of
its members in Oregon “will suffer particular harm,” including “a
county clerk and several members of the wedding industry who will
suffer material harm if the ruling is implemented.”
Justice Kennedy may elect to act on his
own or he could refer NOM's request to the full court.