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Former Bainbridge Township GOP Rep. Steve LaTourette signed onto a GOP brief at the Supreme Court that recommends legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.
(Sabrina Eaton, Northeast Ohio Media Group)
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Former Ohio Congress members Steve LaTourette and Deborah Pryce have signed on to a legal brief filed at the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday by more than 300 Republicans who support same-sex marriage.
The brief says its signers "support traditional conservative values including the belief in the importance of stable families, as well as the commitment to limited government and the protection of individual freedom."
"Because they believe that those conservative values are consistent with -- indeed, are advanced by -- affording civil marriage rights to same-sex couples, amici submit that the decision below should be reversed," said the brief assembled by ex-Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman.
Other prominent Republicans with Ohio ties who signed the brief include Stow native Neel Kashkari - who ran for California governor last year - and South Euclid native Stephen Hadley, who served as George W. Bush's National Security Advisor.
Chris Maloney, who served as Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign spokesman in Ohio, Aaron McLear, a former aide to ex-Gov. Bob Taft and ex-House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, and John Bridgeland, Rob Portman's former chief of staff, also signed.
The GOP brief is one of dozens that have been filed at the U.S. Supreme Court in the closely watched case to be argued April 28. The state of Ohio and current Attorney General Mike DeWine are defending the state's gay marriage ban before the court.
Friend-of-the-court briefs from outside groups that support gay marriage were due at the court Friday.
More than 200 mayors who filed a brief at the court to support same-sex marriage include Cleveland's Frank Jackson, Akron's Donald Plusquellic, Pepper Pike's Richard Bain, Cleveland Heights' Dennis Wilcox and South Euclid's Georgine Welo.
"Marriage makes the population healthier, more productive and economically successful, and all municipalities prosper when the right to marry is equally available to all who live within their borders," the mayors' brief says.
All of Ohio's Democratic members of Congress signed onto a pro-gay marriage brief that was filed by 167 Members of the House of Representatives and 44 U.S. Senators.
"The refusal to license or recognize the marriages of same-sex couples is unconstitutional," their brief says.
Dozens of Ohio clergy members signed onto a brief from religious groups that argued that permitting same sex marriage affirms religious liberty.
"Were all states to recognize and permit the civil marriage of same-sex couples --as they do for interfaith couples, inter-racial couples, and couples re-marrying after divorce -- religions that disapprove of such unions would remain free to define religious marriage however they wish," that brief says.
On Thursday, a large group of Democrats from Ohio and other states, along with Republican former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, filed a brief that argues for legalizing gay marriage.
More than 300 businesses including Ohio's Procter & Gamble, Cardinal Health and Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. filed a joint brief to support gay marriage.
And last week, Cuyahoga County's Division of Children and Family Services filed a brief that argues children of same-sex parents should have the same Constitutional rights as those who have opposite-sex parents.
DeWine, a Republican, has taken the stance that it is Ohio's sole province to define marriage as between a man and a woman.
"The plaintiffs cannot create a specific right to same-sex marriage merely by alleging that they seek to participate in the general right to marry," DeWine said in a past legal brief on the case.