National Organization for Marriage Files Court Document Establishing Collusion Between Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenberg and Those Who Sued To...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 25, 2014
Contact: Elizabeth Ray or Matille Thebolt (703-683-5004)

Washington, D.C. — The following statement may be attributed to John Eastman, Chairman, National Organization for Marriage (NOM):

“From the beginning it was apparent to us that the Attorney General was colluding with the plaintiffs to invalidate the marriage amendment overwhelmingly adopted by the people of Oregon. We filed legal documents forcing the Attorney General to release internal communications and it is clear the degree of collusion is much more extensive than even we imagined.

“The documents we forced the Attorney General’s office to produce indicate that the AG’s office was coordinating with Plaintiffs’ counsel months before the lawsuit was even filed, to get a court order invalidating Oregon’s marriage law. They were given advance copies of the complaint, recommended that Plaintiffs amend their complaint to be even broader than it was, coordinated with Plaintiffs before filing their answer, agreed to urge the court to imposed heightened review, collaborated on the arguments to be presented to the Court on summary judgment, and shared research about NOM’s motion to intervene. They even planned a celebratory party together when the judge ruled in their favor, something they considered to be a foregone conclusion.

“It is the sworn duty of the Attorney General to represent the people, in this case the 57% of voters who enacted Measure 36 defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Yet these documents prove the Attorney General has colluded to advance the interests of the Plaintiffs against the people she is supposed to be representing. This kind of collusion between the highest elected officials of the state and Plaintiffs seeking to have declared unconstitutional a state constitutional amendment those officials did not like not only disserved the people of Oregon, but threatens to undermine our adversarial system of justice.

“For these reasons, NOM is requesting the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstate the Oregon Marriage Amendment and apply the lower court ruling only to the specific couples named in the lawsuit. We also call on the people of Oregon to examine the conduct of the Attorney General in the court of public opinion. Her actions in this case have been shameful.”

Note to Media: For a copy of the listing of examples of collusion between the Attorney General and the Plaintiffs, please email Elizabeth Ray at [email protected] or Matille Thebolt at [email protected]

###

To schedule an interview with John Eastman, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage, please contact Elizabeth Ray, [email protected], or Matille Thebolt, [email protected], at 703-683-5004

Paid for by The National Organization for Marriage, Brian Brown, president. 2029 K Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006, not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. New § 68A.405(1)(f) & (h).