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<div class="">February 25, 2013</div>
<h1>Republicans Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage</h1>
<h6 class="">By
<span>
<a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/sheryl_gay_stolberg/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by SHERYL GAY STOLBERG"><span>SHERYL GAY STOLBERG</span></a></span></h6>
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<p>
WASHINGTON — Dozens of prominent Republicans — including top advisers to
former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members
of Congress — have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a
constitutional right to marry, a position that amounts to a direct
challenge to Speaker John A. Boehner and reflects the civil war in the
party since the November election. </p>
<p>
The document will be submitted this week to the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/supreme_court/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the U.S. Supreme Court." class="">Supreme Court</a> in support of a suit seeking to strike down <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/californias_proposition_8_samesex_marriage/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Proposition 8." class="">Proposition 8</a>, a California ballot initiative barring <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/same_sex_marriage/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships." class="">same-sex marriage</a>,
and all similar bans. The court will hear back-to-back arguments next
month in that case and another pivotal gay rights case that challenges
the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act. </p>
<p>
The Proposition 8 case already has a powerful conservative supporter:
Theodore B. Olson, the former solicitor general under Mr. Bush and one
of the suit’s two lead lawyers. The amicus, or friend-of-the-court,
brief is being filed with Mr. Olson’s blessing. It argues, as he does,
that same-sex marriage promotes family values by allowing children of
gay couples to grow up in two-parent homes, and that it advances
conservative values of “limited government and maximizing individual
freedom.” </p>
<p>
Legal analysts said the brief had the potential to sway conservative
justices as much for the prominent names attached to it as for its legal
arguments. The list of signers includes a string of Republican
officials and influential thinkers — 75 as of Monday evening — who are
not ordinarily associated with gay rights advocacy, including some who
are speaking out for the first time and others who have changed their
previous positions. </p>
<p>
Among them are Meg Whitman, who supported Proposition 8 when she ran for
California governor; Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and
Richard Hanna of New York; Stephen J. Hadley, a Bush national security
adviser; Carlos Gutierrez, a commerce secretary to Mr. Bush; James B.
Comey, a top Bush Justice Department official; David A. Stockman,
President Ronald Reagan’s first budget director; and Deborah Pryce, a
former member of the House Republican leadership from Ohio who is
retired from Congress. </p>
<p>
Ms. Pryce said Monday: “Like a lot of the country, my views have evolved
on this from the first day I set foot in Congress. I think it’s just
the right thing, and I think it’s on solid legal footing, too.” </p>
<p>
Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former Utah governor, who favored civil unions
but opposed same-sex marriage during his 2012 presidential bid, also
signed. Last week, Mr. Huntsman announced his new position in <a title="Article in The American Conservative." href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/marriage-equality-is-a-conservative-cause485/">an article</a>
titled “Marriage Equality Is a Conservative Cause,” a sign that the
2016 Republican presidential candidates could be divided on the issue
for the first time. </p>
<p>
“The ground on this is obviously changing, but it is changing more
rapidly than people think,” said John Feehery, a Republican strategist
and former House leadership aide who did not sign the brief. “I think
that Republicans in the future are going to be a little bit more careful
about focusing on these issues that tend to divide the party.” </p>
<p>
Some high-profile Republicans who support same-sex marriage — including
Laura Bush, the former first lady; Dick Cheney, the former vice
president; and Colin L. Powell, a former secretary of state — were not
on the list as of Monday. </p>
<p>
But the presence of so many well-known former officials — including
Christine Todd Whitman, former governor of New Jersey, and William Weld
and Jane Swift, both former governors of Massachusetts — suggests that
once Republicans are out of public life they feel freer to speak out
against the party’s official platform, which calls for amending the
Constitution to define marriage as “the union of one man and one woman.”
</p>
<p>
By contrast, the brief, shared with The New York Times by its drafters,
cites past Supreme Court rulings dear to conservatives, including the
Citizens United decision lifting restrictions on campaign financing, and
a Washington, D.C., Second Amendment case that overturned a law barring
handgun ownership. </p>
<p>
“We are trying to say to the court that we are judicial and political
conservatives, and it is consistent with our values and philosophy for
you to overturn Proposition 8,” said Ken Mehlman, the former chairman of
the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_national_committee/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about Republican National Committee" class="">Republican National Committee</a>, who came out as gay several years ago. He is on the board of the <a title="The group’s Web site." href="http://www.afer.org/">American Foundation for Equal Rights</a>,
which brought the California suit, and has spent months in quiet
conversations with fellow Republicans to gather signatures for the
brief. </p>
<p>
In making an expansive argument that same-sex marriage bans are
discriminatory, the brief’s signatories are at odds with the House
Republican leadership, which has authorized the expenditure of tax
dollars to defend the 1996 marriage law. The law defines marriage in the
eyes of the federal government as the union of a man and a woman.
</p>
<p>
Polls show that public attitudes have shifted drastically on same-sex
marriage over the past decade. A majority of Americans now favor
same-sex marriage, up from roughly one third in 2003. </p>
<p>
While Republicans lag behind the general population — the latest New
York Times survey found a third of Republicans favor letting gay people
marry — that, too, is changing quickly as more young people reach voting
age. Several recent polls show that about 70 percent of voters under 30
back same-sex marriage. </p>
<p>
“The die is cast on this issue when you look at the percentage of
younger voters who support gay marriage,” said Steve Schmidt, who was a
senior adviser to the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, Senator John
McCain of Arizona, and who signed the brief. “As Dick Cheney said years
ago, ‘Freedom means freedom for everybody.’ ” </p>
<p>
Still, it is clear that Republican backers of same-sex marriage have yet
to bring the rest of the party around to their views. Mr. Feehery said
there are regional as well as generational divisions, with opposition
especially strong in the South. Speaking of Mr. Boehner, he said, “I
doubt very seriously that he is going to change his position.” </p>
<p>
Experts say that amicus briefs generally do not change Supreme Court
justices’ minds. But on Monday some said that the Republican brief,
written by Seth P. Waxman, a former solicitor general in the
administration of President Bill Clinton, and Reginald Brown, who served
in the Bush White House Counsel’s Office, might be an exception.
</p>
<p>
Tom Goldstein, publisher of <a title="The Web site." href="http://www.scotusblog.com/">Scotusblog</a>,
a Web site that analyzes Supreme Court cases, said the amicus filing
“has the potential to break through and make a real difference.” </p>
<p>
He added: “The person who is going to decide this case, if it’s going to
be close, is going to be a conservative justice who respects
traditional marriage but nonetheless is sympathetic to the claims that
this is just another form of hatred. If you’re trying to persuade
someone like that, you can’t persuade them from the perspective of gay
rights advocacy.” </p><br clear="all"></div><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br><br><img src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><br>
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