In criticizing the Supreme Court's
decision striking down state bans on gay marriage, National
Organization for Marriage (NOM) President Brian Brown invoked the
teachings of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Brown, whose organization was solely
created to deny gay couples the right to marry, said that Americans
will reject the high court's ruling and vowed to reverse it.
“Though expected, today's decision is
completely illegitimate,” Brown said in a blog post. “We reject
it and so will the American people. It represents nothing but
judicial activism, legislating from the bench, with a bare majority
of the Justices on the Supreme Court exercising raw political power
to impose their own preferences on marriage when they have no
constitutional authority to do so. It is a lawless ruling that
contravenes the decisions of over 50 million voters and their elected
representatives. It is a decision that is reminiscent of other
illegitimate Court rulings such as Dred Scott and Roe v Wade
and will further plunge the Supreme Court into public disrepute.”
“Make no mistake about it: The
National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and countless millions of
Americans do not accept this ruling. Instead, we will work at every
turn to reverse it.”
“In his 'Letter from a Birmingham
Jail,' Dr. Martin Luther King discussed the moral importance of
disobeying unjust laws, which we submit applies equally to unjust
Supreme Court decisions. Dr. King evoked the teaching of St. Thomas
Aquinas that an unjust law or decision is one that is 'a human law
that is not rooted in eternal law or natural law.'”
Brown predicted that the ruling would
energize opponents: “Just as the Supreme Court's decision in Roe
v. Wade infused the pro-life movement with new energy and
commitment, so too will the decision today reawaken the American
people to join the marriage movement.”