In an email to supporters announcing
this year's March for Marriage, National Organization for Marriage
(NOM) President Brian Brown vowed to “never rest” until the
Supreme Court's Obergefell ruling is reversed.
In Obergefell, the high court in
2015 found that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right
to marry.
NOM, which previously denounced LGBT
activists for turning to the courts to dismantle state marriage bans,
is suddenly banking on the Supreme Court to reverse itself and allow
states to once again restrict marriage based on sexual orientation.
“With the election of Donald Trump,
and several vacancies on the Supreme Court expected during his term,
we have a real chance to reverse this ruling in the short-term,”
Brown said in announcing that this year's March for Marriage will be
held on Saturday, June 17th in Washington, DC.
Brown added that “such a retirement
could occur as early as this summer.”
NOM previously touted passage of a
constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples as
its response to Obergefell. While such an amendment faces a
steep incline, so does a strategy aimed at the Supreme Court, which
rarely reverses itself, and in the case of civil rights, has
overruled prior decisions that restricted the rights of individuals,
such as in Lawrence, which struck down sodomy laws across the
United States.
According to several reports, last
year's March for Marriage attracted fewer that 240 people.
(Related: NOM's
March for Marriage draws low turnout.)