Brian Brown, president of the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM), is calling on the Supreme Court to
stay an appeals court ruling striking down Virginia's ban on gay
marriage.
Michelle B. McQuigg, clerk of Prince
William County's Circuit Court, turned to the Supreme Court after a
3-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond
denied her request to stay its ruling. Chief Justice John Roberts
has set a Monday, August 18 deadline to respond to McQuigg's request.
(Related: Federal
appeals court denies stay in Virginia gay marriage case.)
Without the Supreme Court's
intervention, gay and lesbian couples could start marrying as early
as Thursday. The decision would also affect similar bans in West
Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
“We urge the Supreme Court to grant
Prince William County Clerk Michèle McQuigg's request for a stay of
the decision in Bostic v. Schaefer while the matter is
appealed,” Brown said. “The 4th Circuit has wrongly rejected the
request for a stay, and now it lies with the Justices in Washington
to ensure that this case can be appealed in an orderly and reasonable
fashion without the spectacle of premature same-sex ‘marriages’
filling the news as an affront to the people of Virginia who voted
overwhelmingly to define marriage as the union of one man and one
woman. As the Court stayed a similar decision in the case coming out
of Utah, we urge them to find the same good reasons for staying the
present decision, maintaining the dignity and credibility of the
judicial process and giving the people of Virginia the respect they
deserve to defend their vote for marriage before our highest court.”