From the Desk of Brian Brown

A few days after meeting in Conference, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two consolidated cases focusing on the issue of religious liberty: Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius.

These cases will be heard on March 25th — almost a year to the day after the Supreme Court took up the question of Proposition 8 in California. Lower courts had decided, in the case of Prop 8, that the voters who had taken action to protect marriage were motivated by animus and bigotry. In effect, the lower courts had maintained that people's right to express and stand up for their deeply held beliefs — a right protected by the constitution — was the legal equivalent of racism and bigotry!

Both of the Sebelius cases this year involve Christian business owners who claim that the HHS's so-called "contraception mandate" runs afoul of their protected First Amendment rights, and impinges on their liberty to conduct business as people of faith in accord with deeply held beliefs.

The theme may sound familiar — or at least it should. Recently Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal spoke at a Reagan Foundation Forum event about the "Silent War on Religious Freedom" waging in our country. He cited cases like these going before the Supreme Court as well as cases like Elane Photography as examples of one-and-the-same trend.

We have known and warned for years that the aggressive same-sex 'marriage' lobby was intent on driving people of faith out of the public square altogether. NOM's very mission statement expresses this understanding — our mission is "to protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it."

The odd coincidental near-anniversary of the question of religious liberty returning to the Supreme Court demonstrates in an emphatic way that the issue hasn't gone away — which serves to remind us that we need more than ever to stand up and demand that our rights be respected!

And that brings to mind another anniversary that will be marked this month…

Marching for Marriage

It was a year ago this month that thousands of pro-marriage supporters from every walk of life gathered on the National Mall for the first annual March for Marriage.

Well, as I've mentioned before, we're marching again this year — on June 19th, 2014!