John Eastman, chairman of the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM), on Monday said that marriage
equality supporters are being “overly optimistic” as the issue
heads back to the Supreme Court.
In an NPR story about 2014 being a
banner year for supporters – the number of states allowing gay
couples to marry increased from 18 to 35, plus the District of
Columbia, in the previous 12 months – Eastman, a law professor at
Chapman University, said that the Sixth Circuit's ruling upholding
bans in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee was a game-changer.
The ruling created a split between
appellate courts, all others having sided with plaintiffs, increasing
the likelihood that the high court would consider one or several of
the cases in the new year.
“I think the proponents of redefining
marriage are overly optimistic in their anticipation of an ultimate
ruling in their favor,” Eastman
said.
“As long as there's a fight to
redefine the institution of marriage that runs contrary to your human
nature, human nature's going to have a way of fighting back,”
Eastman said of emerging strategies aimed at undermining the rulings,
such as a proposal in South Carolina that would allow public
officials to refuse to issue a marriage license based on their
religious convictions.
Eastman was unsuccessful in legal
attempts to block rulings in North Carolina and Oregon axing state
bans from taking effect.