SCALES OF JUSTICE

NOM Is Asking A Gay Judge To Let It Defend Oregon’s Marriage Ban

Hon.-Michael-McShaneNever one to shy away from where it’s not wanted, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has taken it upon itself to try to defend a legal challenge to Oregon’s ban on marriage equality because the state attorney general refuses to do so. Just to make the case that much more interesting, the federal judge hearing NOM’s request, Michael McShane, is an openly gay man who is raising a child with his partner.

MCShane heard arguments Wednesday from lawyers for four couples seeking to overturn the marriage ban. However, he said he wouldn’t rule on the case until he decided whether NOM could step in to defend the law. The anti-marriage group filed a legal motion late Monday to insert itself into the case.

“It’s an eleventh hour filing but that’s because the attorney general, at the 10th hour, decided that she would walk over to the other side of the court room and start attacking the Oregon constitution that it is her duty to defend,” John Eastman, NOM’s Chairman of the Board, told KATU. 

Eastman has a strange sense of time (among other things). Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum announced in February that she wouldn’t defend the ban. Given its money woes, perhaps NOM didn’t have the funds to pursue the case. But apparently they’ve found good money to through after all the bad they’ve spent to date.

If McShane throws NOM out of court, the case is expected to proceed rapidly. McShane’s ruling is not expected before May 14.

Photo credit: OregonWomenLawyers.org

 

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