A posse of current and former GOP lawmakers led by state Senator William Sharer has filed an amicus brief in New Mexico, urging the state Supreme Court to declare same-sex marriage illegal, the AP reports:
The Republican lawmakers, represented by a conservative Christian law group called the Alliance Defending Freedom, said anti-discrimination and equal protection guarantees in the state constitution do not provide a legal right to marriage for same-sex couples.
The lawmakers said that "the judiciary should exercise caution when asked to divine fundamental and important constitutional rights not expressly provided in the Constitution's text."
The New Mexico Associaiton of Counties and Clerks filed a petition earlier this month with the high court seeking clarity over the state's marriage law, which is gender-neutral and does not define marriage as being between a man and a woman. Nor does it prohibit same-sex marriage.
Eight counties in the state have been issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, sending conservatives into panic mode.
Think Progress's Zack Ford published some details about the brief, which argues that gay people have more political power than women and should not be considered a "sensitive class".
From the brief:
The touchstone of this Court's analysis is whether “a discrete group . . . warrants a degree of protection from the majoritarian political process.” Yet as demonstrated below, that simply cannot be said of same-sex couples who seek to redefine marriage to include their relationships.
Unlike women or persons with mental disabilities — groups that this Court has previously classified as sensitive — same-sex couples possess political power that vastly exceeds their small percentage of the population. Women account for approximately half of the population, and so do people who experience “a diagnosable mental illness in their lifetimes.”
In contrast, individuals who identify as gay — even though they comprise less than 4 percent of the population — have achieved a disproportionate level of political power and success, particularly on the issue of marriage.
Ford notes that the GOP adopted the same tactics in fighting DOMA at SCOTUS. And well, we know what happened there.
