Tony Perkins said Sunday that a federal
judge's ruling declaring California's gay marriage ban
unconstitutional ignored “a lot of the social science.”
Perkins heads the social conservative
group Family Research Council (FRC), which is opposed to gay rights.
He appeared Sunday on CBS' Face the
Nation to discuss the ruling opposite David Boies, who is a part
of the legal team that challenged the constitutionality of
Proposition 8.
“He [Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn
Walker] ignored a lot of the social science in his opinion,”
Perkins said.
Boies disagreed, and called such
evidence “junk science.”
“Well, it's easy to sit around and
debate and throw around opinions – appeal to people's fear and
prejudice, cite studies that either don't exist or don't say what you
say they do.”
“But when they come into court and
they have to support those opinions and they have to defend those
opinions under oath and cross-examination, those opinions just melt
away. And that's what happened here. There simply wasn't any
evidence. There weren't any of those studies. There weren't any
empirical studies. That's just made up. That's junk science.”
“And it's easy to say that on
television. But [the] witness stand is a lonely place to lie. And
when you come into court, you can't do that. And that's what we
proved. We put fear and prejudice on trial, and fear and prejudice
lost.
But Perkins insisted that “anybody
with half-a-brain” could see that social policy changes, such as
no-fault divorce, have had an impact on marriage. “And as a result
have impacted the well being of children,” he added.
Perkins ended by saying that
conservatives “hope sanity will reign when [the ruling] makes it to
the Supreme Court.”
Appearing on Fox News Sunday,
Ted Olson, who litigated the case along with Boies, said
he's “reasonably confident” the Supreme Court will side with his
clients, two gay couples who have been denied the right to marry
because of the gay marriage ban.