TALLAHASSEE, FL – Today, Liberty Counsel filed a Motion to Intervene in Brenner v. Scott and Grimsley v. Scott, lawsuits initiated by homosexual activists seeking to declare Florida’s marriage laws unconstitutional. Liberty Counsel filed the intervention on behalf of Florida Family Action, which actively organized a statewide grassroots effort to pass the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment. This was the largest grassroots effort in the history of Florida and the first constitutional amendment to reach the 60 percent threshold required for passage.
In 2008, 62.5 percent of Floridians voted to pass Amendment 2, amending their state constitution to reaffirm marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Mathew and Anita Staver, Liberty Counsel’s Chairman and President, respectively, drafted Amendment 2 and successfully defended it against pre-election legal challenges, ultimately winning unanimous approval (7-0) by the Florida Supreme Court.
Having lost in the marketplace of ideas and having failed to convince the public to adopt their radical version of “marriage,” homosexual activists, led by a Jacksonville law firm and the ACLU, have now filed suit, asking the Northern District of Florida, a federal court, to throw out the votes of 8 million Floridians and to judicially impose homosexual marriage upon all Floridians.
Liberty Counsel seeks to intervene to protect both marriage and the voting rights of all Floridians on behalf of Florida Family Action, a cultural action organization that was instrumental in helping pass Amendment 2, along with its thousands of members across the state, devoted to preserving and protecting the institution of marriage.
“Marriage is a foundational societal institution that transcends racial, political, and religious lines,” said Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “This lawsuit threatens to disenfranchise millions of Floridians who voted to affirm natural marriage and to supplant the clearly expressed will of a supermajority of Florida’s voters with the radical vision of homosexual activists who cannot win at the ballot box,” added Horatio Mihet, Liberty Counsel’s Senior Litigation Counsel. “We are committed to providing a vigorous defense for marriage and voting rights,” concluded both.
Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.
