Charlie Crist Supports Gay Marriage, Raises Gubernatorial Speculation

Larry Marano/WireImage(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) -- Ex-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist was once known for being a staunch Republican, but these days he’s better known for jumping between party lines.

Earlier this week, the Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat posted a Facebook update in support of Delaware’s marriage equality legislation.

“Some great news: On Tuesday, Delaware became the 11th state to allow marriage equality. And just a few days ago, Rhode Island adopted a similar measure, which followed victories last fall in Maine, Maryland and Washington. I most certainly support marriage equality in Florida and look forward to the day it happens here,” he wrote.

Despite his support for the issue, Crist’s comments are being met with suspicion rather than applause.

In the span of his extensive political career, Crist spread himself across the full gamut of political parties, confusing the public’s understanding of his true policy alignments.

Crist’s party switching is particularly notable regarding same-sex marriage. In 2006, he opposed same-sex legislation while serving as Florida’s attorney general and even petitioned to add a same-sex ban to the Florida constitution. Six years later, in December 2012, Crist publicly stated his regret for the petition and registered as a Democrat.

“Would I do it today? No,” Crist was quoted as saying in the Miami Herald. “I think the best way to judge where my heart is, is to look at the deeds that I have done...restoration of rights, civil rights cases, things of that nature, that I think show a compassionate heart and hopefully someone who cares and knows who the boss is -- and the boss is the people of Florida.”

Crist’s reflections about his constituents and party affiliation are coming at an interesting time. Now that he is a registered Democrat, Crist is widely believed to be the frontrunner in the 2014 gubernatorial election against Florida’s incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

The change of political heart is not new to Crist. As a Republican, he announced his candidacy for the U.S.  Senate in 2009, and quickly garnered support from a number of conservative heavy-hitters, including the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, John McCain. Crist appeared to fall behind Marco Rubio after supporting the Obama-sponsored Recovery Act, and dropped out of the Republican primary to run as an independent. His campaign was ultimately unsuccessful and Crist returned to the private sector.

Crist will be a keynote speaker at the Democratic-sponsored “Kennedy-King Dinner” this Saturday in Tampa.

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Sen. Rob Portman's Son Writes About Coming Out

Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images(NEW HAVEN, Conn.) -- Two weeks after his Republican senator dad announced his support for gay marriage and one day before the Supreme Court is to hear arguments on the issue, 21 year-old Will Portman penned an editorial in the Yale Daily News describing how he came out as gay.

“In February of freshman year, I decided to write a letter to my parents. I’d tried to come out to them in person over winter break but hadn’t been able to. So I found a cubicle in Bass Library one day and went to work. Once I had something I was satisfied with, I overnighted it to my parents and awaited a response,” Portman writes.

“They called as soon as they got the letter. They were surprised to learn I was gay, and full of questions, but absolutely rock-solid supportive. That was the beginning of the end of feeling ashamed about who I was,” he continued.

In his piece Will Portman discusses the difficulty of coming out about his sexuality as his father was being vetted for the vice presidency. Though he admits that his coming out prompted he and his father to begin talking about the policy issues surrounding marriage for same-sex couples, Portman writes that he did not want his sexual orientation to become an issue during the presidential campaign.

“My dad told the Romney campaign that I was gay, that he and my mom were supportive and proud of their son, and that we’d be open about it on the campaign trail,” he wrote.

Portman continues, “When he ultimately wasn’t chosen for the ticket, I was pretty relieved to have avoided the spotlight of a presidential campaign. Some people have criticized my dad for waiting for two years after I came out to him before he endorsed marriage for gay couples. Part of the reason for that is that it took time for him to think through the issue more deeply after the impetus of my coming out. But another factor was my reluctance to make my personal life public.”

That “rock-solid support” that Will attributes to his father was made evident earlier this month when Sen. Portman publically reversed his opposition to gay marriage.

“I have come to believe that if two people are prepared to make a lifetime commitment to love and care for each other in good times and in bad, the government shouldn’t deny them the opportunity to get married,” Portman wrote in an op-ed that ran in the Columbus Dispatch.

Portman came out in support of gay marriage at a crucial time. This week the Supreme Court will hear arguments on Proposition 8 and DOMA, two potentially transformative cases regarding the very issue that Portman’s son had been urging the senator to consider since he came out during his freshman year of college.

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Obama's 'Evolution' on Gay Marriage

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The Supreme Court will hear arguments in two landmark cases on same-sex marriage this week, nearly 11 months after President Obama first announced his support of marriage for same-sex couples, a decision he reached as part of an "evolution" over the years.

In an interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts in May, President Obama stated his personal support for same-sex marriage, becoming the first president to back marriage publicly for gay and lesbian couples.

"For me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married," Obama told Roberts in May of 2012.

While voicing his support at the time, the president said that he had no intention to "nationalize" the issue and hoped it would be left up to the states.

"I have to tell you that part of my hesitation on this has also been I didn't want to nationalize the issue," he told Roberts. "There's a tendency when I weigh in to think suddenly it becomes political and it becomes polarized. What I'm saying is that different states are coming to different conclusions. But this debate is taking place, at a local level. And I think the whole country is evolving and changing."

But less than a year later, the Supreme Court is taking up two potentially transformative cases on the issue of gay marriage at a time when public support for same-sex marriages has jumped. An ABC News-Washington Post poll released last week found that 58 percent of Americans support legalizing marriage for gay and lesbian couples, and in the past month, two heavy hitters in politics -- former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio -- announced their support of same-sex marriage.

In an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos earlier this month, the president said he hopes the Supreme Court will grant same-sex couples the right to marry. When asked whether he could think of a compelling reason for states to bar same-sex marriage, he said "I can't, personally. I cannot."

"Ultimately, I think that same-sex couples should be able to marry. That's my personal position," Obama told Stephanopoulos. "My hope is that -- the court looks at the evidence and -- and in the California case, for example, the only reason presented for treating gays and lesbians differently was, 'Well, they're gay and lesbian.' There wasn't a real rationale beyond that. In fact, all the other rights ... responsibilities of a civil union were identical to marriage.

"It's just you couldn't call it marriage. Well, at that point, what you're really saying is, 'We're just going to treat these folks differently because of who they are.' And I do not think ... that's who we are as Americans. And ... frankly, I think, American attitudes have evolved, just like mine have, pretty substantially and fairly quickly, and I think that's a good thing."

The Supreme Court Tuesday will consider Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. The court will hear arguments Wednesday on a federal law, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which issues the same definition of marriage as Prop 8 but also denies federal benefits to same-sex couples who are legally married in their states.

In February 2011, the Justice Department said it would continue to enforce DOMA, but it would no longer defend the constitutionality of the law.

The Obama administration waded into the Proposition 8 fight for the first time last month when the Justice Department filed a legal brief asking the Supreme Court to strike down the California measure which bars same-sex marriage. While the president himself did not issue a written argument for the legal brief, he suggested to reporters earlier this month that his interpretation of the Constitution provides a fundamental right to same-sex marriage.

In 1996, Obama, then an Illinois state senate candidate, seemed to back marriages for same-sex couples when he signed a statement in response to a questionnaire that read "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages." The statement was later publicly disavowed by White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, who claimed in June 2011 that the questionnaire was "actually filled out by someone else."

But when Obama ran for Senate in 2004, he provided a definition of marriage that adhered more to the classifications provided by Prop 8 and DOMA, citing his faith as guiding his position on same-sex marriage at the time.

"What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman," then-U.S. Senate candidate Obama said in an interview with WTTW Chicago public television. "What I believe, in my faith, is that a man and a woman, when they get married, are performing something before God, and it's not simply the two persons who are meeting.

"That doesn't mean that that necessarily translates into a position on public policy or with respect to civil unions. What it does mean is that we have a set of traditions in place that, I think, need to be preserved, but I also think we need to make sure that gays and lesbians have the same set of basic rights that are in place," he said.

But, as president, Obama, who supported civil unions for gay couples for the better part of his first term, admitted he was "evolving" on the issue at a time when public opinion had started to shift toward a greater acceptance of same-sex marriage.

"My feelings about this are constantly evolving. I struggle with this. At this point, what I've said is, is that my baseline is a strong civil union that provides them the protections and the legal rights that married couples have," Obama said in a White House news conference in 2010. "I recognize that from their perspective it is not enough, and I think is something that we're going to continue to debate and I, personally, am going to continue to wrestle with going forward.

"I think it's important for us to work through these issues because each community is going to be different, each state is going to be different," Obama said 2011 in response to a question about New York legalizing same-sex marriage. "I think what you're seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-workers, and that they've got to be treated like every other American.

"And I think that principle will win out. It's not going to be perfectly smooth, and it turns out that the president -- I've discovered since I've been in this office -- can't dictate precisely how this process moves."

Seven months before he publicly supported same-sex marriage, Obama told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that he was "still working on" considering a move from supporting civil unions for same-sex couples to backing same-sex marriage.

"I'm still working on it," Obama said in 2011. "I probably won't make news right now, George. But I think that there's no doubt that as I see friends, families, children of gay couples who are thriving, you know, that has an impact on how I think about these issues."

The president cited those same friends and families when he publicly announced his support for gay marriage last year, telling Roberts that he believes people will become more comfortable with the idea in the years to come.

"I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together; when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that 'don't ask, don't tell' is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I've just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married," Obama said.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Supreme Court to Hear Arguments Regarding Gay Marriage this Week

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments from both sides of the same sex marriage debate this week.

At issue are California's Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. Both prohibit same sex marriage, but public opinion seems to increasingly be in favor of gay marriage.

The big question is whether the Court will rule such bans unconstitutional nationwide or if it will leave the issue up to individual states to decide. Opponents of same sex marriage are against the issue being resolved in such a top-down manner by the courts rather than through elections, but most experts seem to think that the Court likely won’t go that far in its ruling.

“They see the wave developing in support of gay marriage. We've seen that develop now majority support in the country. It's moving very, very quickly,” said ABC Chief Political Correspondent George Stephanopoulos.

“They're not gonna wanna risk looking anachronistic …What they're likely to do is create the space for states to make their own decisions.”

California State Attorney General Kamila Harris believes that same sex marriage is about equality. “The majority of Americans believe it, the majority of Californians believe it, the majority of Catholics in this country believe it,” Harris said on CNN's State of the Union.

Austin Nimocks of the Alliance Defending Freedom disagrees with Harris’s assessment.

“We're talking about Californians going to the ballot box twice in a nine year period and voting to uphold marriage between one man and one woman,” he said on State of the Union. “That's our most fundamental right in this country is the right to vote and the right to participate in the political process.

The proponents of same sex marriage note that protecting the rights of minorities has traditionally been done by the courts rather through elections.

Evan Wolfson, President of the advocacy organization Freedom to Marry compared the current marriage debate to another similar case in the 1960's during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation.  

“The Court ruled in favor of the freedom to marry and 70 percent of the American people at that time were against inter-racial marriage. Fortunately, in America we don't put everything up to a vote.”

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Karl Rove: ‘I Could’ Imagine Next GOP Presidential Nominee Supporting Gay Marriage

ABC News(NEW YORK) -- Fox News contributor and former Bush deputy chief of staff Karl Rove said Sunday morning on This Week that he can imagine the next Republican nominee for the White House supporting gay marriage.

“I could,” Rove said on the This Week roundtable.

Rove’s comments came days after Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, whom Mitt Romney considered as a running mate in the 2012 election, announced that he had shifted his position and supported gay marriage. The vast majority of Republicans in Congress do not support same-sex marriage. Portman is the only sitting senator in the GOP to support same-sex marriage.

The Powerhouse Roundtable also addressed gun violence-prevention measures now being discussed in Congress. Rove said that universal background checks would not have stopped the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary that left 20 children dead in December.

“Let’s be clear about this, this was prompted by the Sandy Hook murders.  Those guns were legally purchased with a background check,” Rove said. “This would not have solved something like that.  Let’s be very careful about quickly trampling on the rights of people.”

Former Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina pushed back, arguing the importance of background checks.

“Look, 40 percent of all gun sales currently don’t go through background checks.  The background checks have stopped two million people from getting guns they shouldn’t get,” Messina said. “But we know there are loopholes all over the place. And Karl, just saying no, which is what the NRA and your party is doing right now, isn’t moving us forward.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Pelosi, Boehner Wrestle Over Shift in Gay Marriage Support

Olivier Douliery/Pool via Bloomberg(WASHINGTON) -- With the Supreme Court set to hear arguments on same-sex marriage next week, two more prominent lawmakers took time to express their unwavering views on the issue.

When asked about his defense of the Defense of Marriage Act given that public opinion has shifted to support marriage equality, House Speaker John Boehner said that while his personal belief is that marriage should strictly be between a man and woman, it should be up to the justices to decide whether the act should be upheld as constitutional.

“In our system of government, the administration doesn’t get to decide what’s constitutional. The Supreme Court does,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “Our financing the lawsuit was to make sure that the proper forum was used to make sure that we know what’s constitutional and what isn’t.”

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll,  indicates that the shift in public support for gay marriage is at an all-time high, with 58 percent of Americans now supporting marriage equality.  Just 36 percent of those polled believe same-sex marriage should be illegal.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments against the Defense of Marriage Act as well as California’s Proposition 8 when it convenes next week.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a Capitol news conference today that gay marriage was an issue “near and dear” to her heart and that she predicted the law would be ruled unconstitutional.

Asked about a bill that is moving through the Democratic-controlled New Jersey state legislature that aims to ban gay conversion therapy, a controversial practice in some states where homosexual minors are counseled to believe they are straight, Pelosi discounted the effectiveness of the treatment.

“I believe in science, and I believe in evidence, and I don’t think there’s any scientific evidence that says that we should have such a public policy that tries to do what you describe,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said. “But I do know it’s disrespectful and discriminatory, and therefore I would oppose the conversion therapy and support the bill, as we have in California.” Though a bill to ban gay conversion therapy was passed in California late last year, it has currently been placed on hold by a federal appeals court and awaits further action.

In contrast to Boehner, fellow Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, in an op-ed last week, became the second-sitting GOP senator to endorse gay marriage.

While the topic has taken on new life on Capitol Hill in the wake of Portman’s reversal, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, also came out in support of gay marriage in an ad for the Human Rights Campaign earlier this week.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Santa Fe Goes Rogue on Gay Marriage

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(SANTA FE, N.M.) -- Same-sex marriage is already legal in New Mexico, if Santa Fe city officials are to be believed.

Citing an ABC News-Washington Post poll this week that showed growing support for gay marriage nationally, Santa Fe Mayor David Coss, City Attorney Geno Zamora and Councilor Patti Bushee announced their support for gay marriage Tuesday and recommended that city clerks begin doling out marriage licenses to couples, regardless of gender.

“Marriage law in New Mexico is gender-neutral and does not define marriage as between a man and a woman,” Zamora said in a statement from Santa Fe city government. “New Mexico already recognizes valid marriages performed in other states between same-sex couples; it would violate our state’s constitution to deny equal rights in our own families.”

Coss is a Democrat, but his coming out in favor of gay marriage echoes the sentiments of Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, because he has a gay child. Portman announced his support for marriage equality last week, saying he wanted his gay son to enjoy the same opportunities as his other children.

Some marriage-equality activists see the Santa Fe mayor’s declaration as a positive step forward, but others worry it could end in heartbreak for the couples that heed the mayor’s call to marry.

Gregory T. Angelo, executive director of pro-gay rights Republican organization Log Cabin Republicans, compared Santa Fe to San Francisco in 2004 when then-Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered county clerks to give marriage licenses to gay couples, resulting in more than 3,000 marriages that were invalidated by California Supreme Court six months later.

“I think this could be a mess,” Angelo said Wednesday. “It’s also unfair, I think, to gay and lesbian couples who might obtain marriage licenses through this initiative, because they would not have the guarantee of protections that would be afforded to them if this was handled on the state level.”

But law professor Andrew Koppelman of Northwestern University believes this is a straightforward case. For county clerks to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples would be illegal discrimination, in his view.

“For a long time, this argument was a loser because people presupposed without any legal authority to support it that same-sex marriage was impossible. But that has changed,” Koppelman said Wednesday. “This argument that same-sex couples already have a right to marry under existing law as a legal argument could very well be a winner in court.”

Stuart Gaffney of Marriage Equality USA is cautiously optimistic about Mayor Coss’ call to county clerks.

Gaffney recognized the connection between the San Francisco case, but said those invalidated marriages all paved the way for the Supreme Court case on same-sex marriage being heard next week.

“Whether people are able to finally say, ‘I do,’ in Santa Fe or across New Mexico at this moment, I can’t say for sure. But it’s part of the process that is bringing marriage equality closer every day,” Gaffney said.

But Gaffney, who married his husband in California before the 2008 passage of Proposition 8, warned that couples who take the mayor up on his offer are opening themselves up to more than just the bliss of married life.

“It can be heartbreaking for couples to see their marriages come and go, so I certainly would not advise anyone to enter into a marriage that may become a test case, unless they’re ready to make that part of their marriage vows,” Gaffney said. “I would ask them to consider it very carefully.”

Gaffney told ABC News in February that activists “have never been more hopeful” about the future of same-sex marriage in America. He reiterated that optimism today.

“There’s no question that we’re going to see it in our lifetimes, it’s just how much longer do we have to wait,” he said.

Ultimately, same-sex marriages in New Mexico could face opposition from New Mexico Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.

Martinez has gone on record against legalizing same-sex marriage, as recently as late February.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Bill Clinton Says 'It's Time to Overturn' Gay Marriage Law He Signed

Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for TRANS4M(WASHINGTON) -- Former President Bill Clinton is adding his name to the list of those who say the Supreme Court should overturn the federal law restricting marriage to one man and one woman. Seventeen years after he signed the law that did just that, Bill Clinton says the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, should be thrown out.

Clinton writes Thursday in a Washington Post op-ed that 1996 was "a very different time."   

He explains:

"In no state in the union was same-sex marriage recognized, much less available as a legal right, but some were moving in that direction. Washington, as a result, was swirling with all manner of possible responses, some quite draconian. As a bipartisan group of former senators stated in their March 1 amicus brief to the Supreme Court, many supporters of the bill known as DOMA believed that its passage 'would defuse a movement to enact a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, which would have ended the debate for a generation or more.' It was under these circumstances that DOMA came to my desk, opposed by only 81 of the 535 members of Congress."

Today, gays and lesbians can marry in nine states and Washington, D.C.  To deprive them of rights under federal law, Clinton says, is discriminatory and "incompatible with our Constitution."

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on DOMA, and California's Proposition 8, later this month.

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Clint Eastwood Joins Republicans for Gay Marriage, Highlighting Growing GOP Rift

Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- A growing split in the Republican Party deepened Thursday when Clint Eastwood, the movie star who rocked the GOP convention by interviewing an invisible President Obama, joined the ranks of Republicans who are in favor of legalizing gay marriage.

The support for gay marriage by Eastwood and about 100 prominent Republicans, along with budding support within the party for immigration reform, is creating an obvious divide in the party. It pits moderate Republicans and party operatives on one side against conservative activists who drive turnout in the primary elections.

One of the four former Republican governors who signed the legal brief in favor of same-sex marriage is ex-New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, who says there are days she "absolutely" doesn't feel like part of the party because she says the GOP is being "defined by the talking heads and they don't for the most part represent me."

Whitman said she signed the gay marriage brief because it's important to be heard and it's "an opportunity to get this issue behind us."

"We are talking about family values, we are talking about commitment that so many people hold in such high regard it shouldn't make a difference if it's between a man and a woman or two men or two women," Whitman said. "We are the party of family values and limited government. Getting out of the bedroom is a good first step."

Whitman, who is also the former administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, said the purist conservatives are statistically a smaller number of people in the party, but are the loudest because of their role in the party's primaries where voter turnout can be very low.

"It allows the most partisan people the first say in who your choices…and because they are the most partisan they are going to choose the most partisan people," Whitman said. "They have influence beyond their numbers."

Margaret Hoover, a GOP strategist and former George W. Bush staffer who signed the brief, agrees with Whitman, but said she always feels like a member of the party because she is "totally committed to changing it."

"You can leave or you can change it and frankly we are having a lot of success changing it," Hoover said. "We are making it truer to our principals and we are calling out the people who claim to be for individual freedom."

Hoover said she thinks the people "gearing up for civil war" are the "social conservatives who insist on purity tests," but there are "other elements of the party that are quickly trying to tamp that down and pivoting to, 'No we are going to be the party of the big tent.' We are going to get back to being a big tent party on social issues. We will be strict on fiscal issues."

"It's fair to say that increasingly behind the scenes Republicans are saying we have to be a big tent on social issues. Social conservative activists are going to hate that, [American Conservative Union president] Al Cardenas is going to hate that and his people are going to hate that, but that's not the reality," Hoover said.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Obama Administration Joins Legal Fight Against Calif. Gay Marriage Ban

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The Department of Justice filed a brief Thursday in the case of a controversial California ballot initiative that defined marriage as between one man and one woman, asking the Supreme Court to affirm a lower court decision that struck down the measure, known as Proposition 8.

The brief marks the first time that the Obama administration has come out in court against Prop 8.

"The exclusion of gay and lesbian couples from marriage does not substantially further any important governmental interest. Proposition 8 thus violates equal protection," wrote Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. in a "friend of the court" brief filed in favor of gay and lesbian couples challenging Prop 8.

Referring to proponents of the voter-approved measure who are defending it in court, Verrilli wrote, "Petitioners contend that Proposition 8 serves an interest in returning the issue of marriage to the democratic process, but use of a voter initiative to promote democratic self-governance cannot save a law like Proposition 8 that would otherwise violate equal protection."

But Thomas Peters, communications director for the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes gay marriage, invoked California's voters in saying it expected the court to uphold the law.

"NOM expects the Supreme Court to exonerate the votes of over 7 million Californians to protect marriage," said Peters, whose group is not the one arguing for Prop 8 in court. "The president is clearly fulfilling a campaign promise to wealthy gay marriage donors. There is no right to redefine marriage in our Constitution."

The Obama administration brief noted that California extends all of the rights and responsibilities of marriage to gay and lesbians, but forbids them the designation of "marriage."

That circumstance, "particularly undermines the justifications for Proposition 8," Verrilli wrote.

"The brief pays closest attention to California and the other seven states that grant same-sex couples all the rights and responsibilities of marriage but insist on denying them the favored name," said Jane S. Schacter, a professor at Stanford Law School. "But it advocates that the court adopt a much tougher, more skeptical approach to any state law that denies same-sex couples the right to marry."

"That approach is what lawyers call 'heightened scrutiny,'" she added, "and if it were faithfully applied to all state laws banning same-sex marriage, it would result in the invalidation of those laws. The administration's brief provides a blueprint for a national right-to-marriage equality, even though it does not advocate that in express terms."

Stephen I. Vladeck, a professor of law at American University of Law, called it the, "tip of a much larger anti-discrimination iceberg."

According to the brief, Vladeck said, "states can't discriminate against gays without a really strong reason -- not just with respect to marriage, but adoption, employment, benefits and so on."

Today, 39 states have laws restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples. This number includes voter-approved constitutional amendments in 30 states barring same sex marriage. Nine states allow gay marriage.

"The brief filed by the solicitor general is a powerful statement that Proposition 8 cannot be squared with the principles of equality upon which this nation was founded," said Adam Umhoefer executive director of the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the group behind the challenge of Prop 8.

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