Another attorney general has backed away from defending her state’s ban on gay marriage.
In a court filing Thursday, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said she would not defend the state’s gay marriage ban, that state defenders “will take the position in their summary judgment briefing that the ban cannot withstand a federal constitutional challenge under any standard of review.”
According to The Associated Press, to date attorneys general in five other states, Virginia, Pennsylvania, California, Illinois and Nevada have declined defending their states ban on same sex marriage against legal challenges by gay couples. In New Mexico, a sixth example, while no law specifically banned same-sex marriage the laws generally did not allow it. Mexico legalized same-sex marriage in December.
The Oregonian notes that all four plaintiffs in the case — which combined two separate suits — and the defendant will all take a position of opposition to the ban.
And while a good number of attorneys general are declining to defend their states’s law, National Organization of Marriage president Brian Brown slammed Rosenblum for failing to defend Oregon’s law.
“She swore an oath of office that she would enforce all the laws, not just those she personally agrees with. The people are entitled to a vigorous defense of the laws they enact, and the marriage amendment is no exception to that solemn obligation,” Brown said in a statement. “Further, Ms. Rosenblum is dead-wrong in her conclusion that the amendment cannot be supported by rational legal arguments.”
