A federal court judge has smacked down the National Organization For Marriage‘s request to delay tomorrow’s long-scheduled hearing in the first day of a same-sex marriage case in Oregon. In a case suing the state for the right to marry, the attorney general has refused to defend the law in court, and no other party had requested to defend the law. Until yesterday.
The National Organization For Marriage has had since February to ask the court to be allowed to defend the law, yet waited until yesterday — less than 48 hours before the start of the trial — to make that request.
Just moments ago, the court denied their request to delay the start of the trial, and notified NOM it would consider its request to defend the law at a later date.
NOM chairman John Eastman had the temerity in a press release to actually attack the judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Michael McShane, suggesting a conflict of interest because the judge is gay.
“These recent news reports suggest that Judge McShane is in the same position as the two gay men challenging the marriage amendment, raising troubling questions about his impartiality,†Eastman said.
Noting that the National Organization For Marriage is based in Washington, D.C., not Oregon, Oregon United for Marriage says “oral arguments will proceed as scheduled tomorrow afternoon at the Federal Courthouse in Eugene. However, the judge will consider NOM’s motion to intervene in the case and has scheduled oral arguments on that issue for May 14th. If the motion to intervene is accepted, Judge McShane would then schedule a second briefing schedule on summary judgement or move the case to trial.”
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Image by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr under a CC License