ProtectMarriage.com executive director Ron Prentice has been busy. Last week, he sent out an email to Prop 8 supporters about the Manhattan Declaration – a “clarion call” to Christians to act on their conscience and defend the sanctity of life, traditional marriage and religious liberty. And today, Prentice’s email is both a claim of victory that a 3-judge panel ruled against the Olson/Boies team – which filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Prop 8 – and a whining plea for money because ProtectMarriage.com’s “Proposition 8 Legal Defense Fund is the ONLY entity in this litigation defending the People and arguing in defense of Prop 8.”
Well, a couple of things. Prentice conveniently ignores the fact that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is going to review the 3-judge panel’s decision about the documents. Awkward for them if they call the full 9th Circuit “activist judges” when they didn’t say that for the 3-judge panel that ruled in their favor. But contradictions never seem a barrier to their thinking anyway.
Another little point of contention: in a Dec. 10, 2008 appeal for money for the Proposition 8 Defense Fund, the pitch is:
Just as in the Prop 8 campaign, your decision to donate will determine whether or not we have the resources needed to win.
Please note: Your privacy will be protected. Since this is not a political campaign, donations to the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund are not publicly reported. Also, your donation is tax-deductible as allowed by law.
Donations are handled by CompleteCampaigns.com, a web-based political software company, which is the direct google link to the Proposition 8 Legal Defense Fund. I could find not advisory body or board of directors or other named entities with fiduciary responsibility for the fund. Yet somehow, ProtectMarriage.com managed to hire Ken Starr and now Charles Cooper – no slouches in the expensive legal team category. Cooper is ProtectMarriage.com’s attorney since the group was granted permission to intervene in the federal challenge case.
Oh, lest we forget: the Alliance Defense Fund attorneys submitted a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the Family Research Council in the Prop 8 case argued by Ken Starr so ProtectMarriage.com is not without their big organizational supporters, too.
So as to that whimper that the Proposition 8 Legal Defense Fund is the poor, little David to the fat-cat LGBT Goliath – well, I don’t recall seeing a fundraising pitch from the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the group sponsoring the Ted Olson/David Boies team.
A little sidebar here: some LGBT Prop 8-watchers are still a little nervous about Olson, having watched him work well with opposing counsel – meaning Cooper. Indeed, the two men are friends. But from my conversations with Olson, I found him to be deeply sincere in his belief and legal opinion that Prop 8 is unconstitutional. I suspect that this court room argument will be old school – friendly competitors, the way the Republicans and Democrats used to be in Congress before Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove and Tom “the Hammer” DeLay.
Ted Olson and Charles "Chuck" Cooper
Herewith the funding pitch by ProtectMarriage.com’s Ron Prentice, followed by his pitch last week around the Manhattan Declaration, with a few choice words from the fundy Christian blogger who received the pitch.
Dear friends,
Perry v Schwarzenegger, the battle in the US District Court over the validity of Proposition 8, is moving forward at incredible speed. Chief Judge Vaughan Walker seems intent on preserving the original trial date of January 11, 2010 – just a few weeks from now. In a sign of how important the court sees this case, the judge has said he would consider allowing television cameras in the courtroom if higher courts permit it. On that prospect, NBC News said, “Not since Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearings have wonks been so excited.”
No one associated with Perry v Schwarzenegger is resting as the trial date approaches. Our opponents in the federal court case sought access to internal e-mails and documents among Prop 8 campaign executives and supporters, in order to “prove” that the campaign aimed to stir “discriminatory animus” toward gays and lesbians. Of course, one of our most valued rights as Americans is the protection we receive under the First Amendment to the nation’s Constitution. Our team of esteemed attorneys objected to the opposing attorneys’ demands on the basis that such demands violate the First Amendment. Regrettably, Chief Judge Walker ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, seemingly requiring us to make available confidential, non-public campaign documents relating to campaign strategy and advertising. Fortunately, that was not the end of the issue.
The Proposition 8 legal defense team of attorneys, led by acclaimed lawyer Charles Cooper (Cooper & Kirk), appealed Judge Walker’s ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In that hearing, we made a thoughtful, clear and tight argument that to rule against us would provide a chilling effect, discouraging individuals from participating in future initiative campaigns and muting the exchange of ideas within those campaigns. And in a sign of how strong our arguments were, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California filed a “letter brief” urging the Ninth Circuit to overrule Judge Walker.
Indeed, in a unanimous decision the 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit did overturn the US District Court’s ruling and found in our favor, saying that to turn over internal campaign documents would violate the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of association and that the First Amendment trumped any right that plaintiffs might have to our internal documents.
“The freedom to associate with others for the common advancement of political beliefs and ideas lies at the heart of the First Amendment,” wrote Judge Raymond Fisher for the panel. Disclosing the inner workings of the Prop 8 campaign “would have the practical effect of discouraging the exercise of First Amendment associational rights . . .”
This is clearly a critical victory for our side, both from a practical and tactical standpoint. Our attorneys did a stellar job of confidently making our case and, ultimately protecting your rights. However, this battle is far from over.
This appeal to the Ninth Circuit is just one example of many of the intense legal skirmishes in the Perry case that have been waged to preserve Proposition 8 and, by implication, the nation’s marriage laws defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Late last week, our attorneys finished conducting numerous depositions and representing campaign officials in depositions conducted by the plaintiffs. These depositions are intense, requiring a massive preparation effort. Meanwhile, we have also been busy helping experts prepare reports for the court and rebutting the expert reports prepared by the plaintiffs.
The stakes in the Perry case simply could not be higher as all eyes are on this case at state, federal, and international levels. Our opponents have the financial support of wealthy same-sex marriage activists and numerous well-funded national organizations. Representing ProtectMarriage.com-Yes on 8, the Proposition 8 Legal Defense Fund is the ONLY entity in this litigation defending the People and arguing in defense of Prop 8. We are counting on the help of thousands of people like you to mount a vigorous defense of Prop 8 and the institution of marriage as it has always existed.
Your contributions now are urgently needed and will be put to immediate use to help us continue the fight to protect traditional marriage as we move into the trial phase. Please be as generous as you can so we can continue to mount the most aggressive, winning legal defense of this most critical of social policies – the institution of marriage.
Most sincerely,
Ron Prentice
Executive Director
This is from the blog Protect Biblical Marriage:
The following is an email I received today from Ron Prentice of the “Yes on Proposition 8″ campaign which passed in November, 2008. Since then, many people (especially prominent ones in the Christian community) have been targets of vicious attacks by rabidly obsessive homosexual activist radicals who cannot stand the success of the Proposition 8 vote results here in California. Now that the Manhattan Declaration has been signed by almost 300,000 additional people (as of 12/14/09), the original creators and signers of the declaration are being harrassed and targeted by homosexual activists and their advocates. If you are financially able to do so, please consider a gift to this worthy cause in the protection of biblical marriage!
Sincerely,
Christine
*******
Dear Friends,
A few weeks ago, a coalition of prominent Christian clergy, ministry leaders and scholars drafted an impressive document which addresses the sanctity of life, religious liberty and traditional marriage, and calls on Christians to answer the clarion call to act on their conscience. The Manhattan Declaration is thoughtful, moving in its simplicity and truth, and has predictably drawn the reflexive ire of supporters of gay marriage.
The Declaration states, in part, that its drafters are “especially troubled that in our nation today…the institution of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies.” The Declaration also articulates serious concern that “freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions.”
As the Declaration points out, centuries of human experience confirm that marriage is the sustaining institution for the health, education and welfare of every person and every society. The Declaration also makes three salient points about the need to legally support traditional marriage and the dangers inherent in changing its definition based on the selfish desires of the politically powerful.
1. If the covenantal union of a man and a woman is indistinguishable from homosexual “marriage,” the religious liberty of those for whom this is a matter of conscience is jeopardized.
2. The rights of parents are abused as family life and sex education programs in schools are used to teach children that an enlightened understanding recognizes as “marriages” sexual partnerships that many parents believe are intrinsically non-marital and immoral.
3. The common good of civil society is damaged when the law itself, in its critical pedagogical function, becomes a tool for eroding a sound understanding of marriage on which the flourishing of the marriage culture in any society vitally depends.
Where marriage between a man and woman is honored, and where there is a flourishing marriage culture, everyone benefits—the spouses themselves, their children, the communities and societies in which they live. That is precisely what our exceptional team of attorneys is fighting for in federal court right now.
Therefore, and contrary to the core of what our opponents in federal court contend, it is out of love and concern for the greater good of society — not animus and prejudice – that we forge ahead to defend the definition of marriage that millions of Californians adopted last year.
Since the Declaration was published November 20th, nearly 300,000 people have signed it, indicating their belief that marriage between a man and a woman is society’s most fundamental institution. Opponents have wasted no time going on the attack, threatening to cause disruptions in the diocese of every Catholic bishop who signed the Manhattan Declaration.
Eight days after the Declaration was made public, a post appearing on GayBuzz.blogspot urged homosexual activists to punish Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of the Catholic Diocese of Oakland for signing the declaration.
Please take the time to support our legal efforts to defend your vote for Prop 8, add your name to the growing list of Manhattan Declaration supporters, and share the document with your friends, family and colleagues.
Sincerely,
Ron Prentice
Executive Director
© 2009 ProtectMarriage.com Action Fund. All Rights Reserved.
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