Preserving Marriage, Protecting Families

October 3, 2011

While the hour is late, we wanted to get a report out to all of our friends, especially to the many of you praying (some of you praying and fasting) around Washington State and other parts of the country for the Protect Marriage Washington legal team.

Having just returned from the Federal Courthouse in Tacoma, it's been a long and emotional day for us. As many of you know, we attended a hearing that started at 2:00pm today (Monday, October 3) at the United States District Courthouse in Tacoma, to argue our side in the case Doe vs. Reed.

At issue is whether the court will allow Washington State to release the names of those who signed the R-71 petition in 2009. As noted in the Seattle Times today, Doe vs. Reed is "now in its 26th month. It has consumed tens of thousands of pages of court filings. Dozens of witnesses have been deposed and the case has used up thousands of attorney hours, some of them pro bono."

After hearing arguments from both sides, Federal Judge Benjamin Settle said today that he will issue an opinion on the case in two weeks.

While it remains unclear which way the judge will rule, our legal team, led by James Bopp Jr. and Stephen Pidgeon, performed magnificently once again. The opposition team was led by Attorney General Rob McKenna's office and lawyers from the Washington Coalition for Open Government and Equal Rights Washington.

Amazingly, and in spite of hundreds of examples brought forward as evidence, McKenna's attorney (Anne Egeler) continues to deny that any harassment whatsoever took place during the R-71 campaign. The AG's strategy is to trivialize the many confrontations, threats, obscenity laced e-mails and phone calls that many of us on our side endured during the campaign, and to redefine clear examples of harassment as protected "political speech."

We believe that our arguments won the day and that we stand a good chance of winning this case!

Pray for Judge Benjamin Settle that he is able make the best possible decision for the future of Washington State citizens, even in the face of pressures brought on by our state's liberal government and media establishments.

Senator Ed Murray has vowed to introduce and pass a Homosexual Marriage Bill in Olympia in January of 2012. Another referendum to the people would immediately ensue. What happens within the next two weeks with Doe vs. Reed will determine whether the next campaign will be civil or confrontational.

If our opponents prevail in this case, the tactics employed by homosexual activists during California's Proposition 8 and Washington's R-71 campaigns will, sadly, become the norm.

As noted by James Bopp Jr., "Everyone has a stake in this."