FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jameson Cunningham

August 4, 2010 Shirley & Banister Public Affairs

703-739-5920/800-536-5920
jcunningham@sbpublicaffairs.com

PROPOSITION 8 DECISION: AN ASSAULT ON

MARRIAGE AND DEMOCRACY
“Issue will do nothing but enflame and prolong the culture war,” says
APP Founder Robert George
Washington, DC – Today, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker struck down as unconstitutional California’s
Proposition 8 marriage law, passed by voter referendum in 2008, which recognized marriage as only between a
man and a woman.

“Another flagrant and inexcusable exercise of ‘raw judicial power’ threatens to enflame and prolong the culture
war ignited by the courts in the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade,” said Dr. Robert P. George, Founder of the
American Principles Project. “In striking down California’s conjugal marriage law, Judge Walker has arrogated
to himself a decision of profound social importance—the definition and meaning of marriage itself—that is left by
the Constitution to the people and their elected representatives.”

“As a decision lacking any warrant in the text, logic, structure, or original understanding of the Constitution, it
abuses and dishonors the very charter in whose name Judge Walker declares to be acting. This usurpation of
democratic authority must not be permitted to stand.”

Judge Walker’s decision in Perry v. Schwarzenegger seeks to invalidate California Proposition 8, which by vote of
the people of California restored the conjugal conception of marriage as the union of husband and wife after
California courts had re-defined marriage to include same-sex partnerships.

“The claim that this case is about equal protection or discrimination is simply false,” George said. “It is about the
nature of marriage as an institution that serves the interests of children—and society as a whole—by uniting men
and women in a relationship whose meaning is shaped by its wonderful and, indeed, unique aptness for the
begetting and rearing of children.

“We are talking about the right to define what marriage is, not about who can or cannot take part. Under our
Constitution the definition and meaning of marriage is a decision left in the hands of the people, not given to that
small fraction of the population who happen to be judges.”

“Judge Walker has abandoned his role as an impartial umpire and jumped into the competition between those
who believe in marriage as the union of husband and wife and those who seek to advance still further the
ideology of the sexual revolution. Were his decision to stand, it would ensure additional decades of social
dissension and polarization. Pro-marriage Americans are not going to yield to sexual revolutionary ideology or to
judges who abandon their impartiality to advance it. We will work as hard as we can for as long as it takes to
defend the institution of marriage and to restore the principle of democratic self-government,” concluded Dr.
George.

The American Principles Project is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to preserving and propagating the
fundamental principles on which our country was founded. Through our efforts, we hope to return our nation to
an understanding that governance via these timeless principles will only strengthen us as a country.
For further information, please contact Jameson Cunningham with Shirley & Banister Public Affairs at
(703) 739-5920 or (800) 536-5920. ###