Libertarian and Liberal Think Tank Heads Support Marriage

There's an interesting editorial in today's Washington Post from John Podesta, former Clinton Whote House Chief of Staff and head of the prominent liberal think tank the Center for American Progress and Robert Levy, head of the pre-eminent Libertarian think tank the Cato Institute announcing their support for marriage equality and the American Foundation for Equal Rights lawsuit to overturn California's Proposition 8. They have joined AFER's board of directors as co-chairs.

From the Post's "marriage equality for all couples":

The plaintiffs' legal team, headed by former Bush v. Gore antagonists Theodore Olson and David Boies, has demonstrated that no good reason exists for the denial of fundamental civil rights under Proposition 8. We support that position.

Although we serve, respectively, as president of a progressive and chairman of a libertarian think tank, we are not joining the foundation's advisory board to present a "bipartisan" front. Rather, we have come together in a nonpartisan fashion because the principle of equality before the law transcends the left-right divide and cuts to the core of our nation's character. This is not about politics; it's about an indispensable right vested in all Americans.

[...]

Thanks to the genius of our Framers, who separated power among three branches of government, our courts have been able to take the lead -- standing up to enforce equal protection, as demanded by the Constitution -- even when the executive and legislative branches, and often the public as well, were unwilling to confront wrongful discrimination.

Indeed, the Supreme Court issued its Loving ruling in the face of widespread opposition. A Gallup poll taken within months of the decision found that 74 percent of the American public "disapproved" of interracial marriage. Nevertheless, the court vindicated those constitutional rights to which every American is entitled. As we look back, the Loving decision is hailed as an example of the best in American jurisprudence.

In terms of public opinion, courts addressing marriage equality have less of a hill to climb. Opposition to same-sex marriage pales next to the intense hostility the court faced before its ruling in Loving. A February Post poll showed 47 percent support for same-sex marriage (up from 37 percent support in the same poll in 2003). The Post poll also showed that the younger an individual is, the more likely he or she is to favor marriage equality, regardless of political persuasion. Among individuals ages 18 to 29, an estimated 65 percent support marriage equality.

It is precisely this generation gap which animates the heterosexual supremacists now to attempt to get as many constitutional bans on marriage now while they can because they know that the ans will fall in the future as the 18-29 cohort ages (and browns).