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Obama Says He'd Strike Down All Bans on Same-Sex Marriage

  • Religion Today Religious persecution, missions, Christianity around the world
  • Updated Mar 26, 2013

In an impromptu White House press conference on Friday, President Barack Obama spoke on his administration's recent decision to file a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Supreme Court to strike down California's Proposition 8, saying there was "no good reason" for a ban on same-sex marriage, the Christian Post reports. In response to a reporter who asked why he didn't "just argue that marriage is a right that should be available to all people of this country," Obama said: "What we've said is that same-sex couples are a group, a class that deserves heightened scrutiny. The Supreme Court needs to ask the state why it's doing it, and if the state doesn't have a good reason, it should be struck down. That's the core principle, as applied to this case. Now, what the court may decide that if it doesn't apply in this case, it probably can't apply in any case. There's no good reason for it. If I were on the court, that would probably be the view that I would put forward. But I'm not a judge, I'm the president. The basic principle, though, is let's treat everybody fairly, let's treat everybody equally, and ... I think that the brief that's been presented accurately reflects our views." Obama also said he felt it was important for his administration to become involved in the Proposition 8 case because he found the voter-approved amendment to be unconstitutional. The amendment, passed in 2008, defines marriage in California as between a man and a woman.