Judge McShane scheduled the Oregon marriage equality hearing on January 23, 2014 (oral arguments) for April 23, 2014. Oregon's Attorney General decided not to defend the marriage ban. No other party came forward to defend it until NOM decided to try and intervene -- TWO days before the hearing. That's right -- two freaking days before the hearing (oral arguments for summary judgment). If that wasn't galling enough, the very next day, NOM filed a motion to postpone the hearing (the DAY BEFORE the hearing). Judge McShane rightly denied the motion to postpone the hearing, however he stated in the order that he would not rule on the motion for summary judgment before he decided on NOM's motion to intervene. Judge McShane will hold oral arguments on the motion to intervene on May 14, 2014. The oral arguments for summary judgment went on as planned.
NOM's Chairman, John Eastman, made this statement regarding the hearing that took place on April 23:
What is occurring in Oregon is the plaintiffs are colluding with the government to get a pre-ordained result that fits with their political agenda notwithstanding the fact that the voters of Oregon voted overwhelmingly to define marriage as one man and one woman. Judge Michael McShane held a hearing in Oregon yesterday where everybody participating--two sets of plaintiffs and two sets of Defendants, including the Governor and the Attorney General, all argued that Oregon's marriage law served no rational purpose. Attorneys for the government announced that they could not even conceive of any argument in favor of marriage between one man and one woman. The hearing highlighted in a profound way the importance to our adversary process of actually having adversaries.
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Joe.My.God
Actually, the hearing highlighted that, in some cases, it is getting extremely hard to find anyone to defend these discriminatory marriage bans. If a law violates the US Constitution, it MUST be struck down. It does not matter how many (misinformed) people voted for it. And, it does not matter how many times and how often NOM and their spokespersons whine about it. That is the way our government (and our judiciary) work. If justice prevails, Judge McShane will deny NOM's motion to intervene and strike down Oregon's marriage ban sooner rather than later.