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In February, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court ofAppeals struck down as unconstitutional California'sProposition 8, a state constitutional amendment passed by votersthat would have defined marriage as a union between one man and onewoman. The 9th Circuit Tuesday refused to rehear the case. In an interview Wednesday, Brian Brown, president of the NationalOrganization for Marriage told me that, although the ruling is inone sense a setback, the end result could be very helpful as thecase heads to the U.S. Supreme Court. Were you surprised by the 9th Circuit's decision to notrehear the case? The 9th Circuit is the most overturned circuit in the country, andobviously it has a very liberal bent, so the decision itself is nota big surprise. What is sort of a surprise is how strong thedissent was. [The three dissenting judges] basically say that theinterpretation of the law put forward by the majority is completelyoutside the bounds of the clear legal history. I think that will beimportant as this goes to the U.S. Supreme Court. Could you explain what the dissenting justice meant when he wrotethat the majority made a "gross misapplication" of thelaw? The 9th Circuit tried to make a decision that they thought theSupreme Court would be more likely to uphold. As you know, thestate Supreme Court forced same-sex marriage on California and thenthe people went to the ballot box and overturned that. But [the 9thCircuit] ended up in territory that makes no sense. The 9th Circuit is basically saying, once the court decides, thelaw is a one-way street, and you can never overturn it. Idon't know many people of common sense that are going toaccept such an interpretation. [The court also suggested that]same-sex couples are a special class and only animus would drivepeople to support marriage as between a man and a woman. It'sjust so far beyond the pale I find it hard to believe that theSupreme Court is going to accept it. How important is the upcoming presidential election in this battle? President Obama has come out in support of same-sex marriage. Themask is off, and who is on the Supreme Court is going to decide thefuture of marriage. I'm confident that President Obama wouldnominate justices that would undermine marriages and that Gov.Romney would nominate justices that would stick to the letter ofthe law. President Obama himself has made this [issue] a proxy forthe election. And we also have key marriage votes in four states—Maryland,Washington, Minnesota, and Maine—that are very important.Obama also needs to win in key swing states, like Florida, Ohio,and North Carolina, which just voted overwhelmingly to protecttraditional marriage. I don't see any other way to look atthe 2012 election other than as a national referendum on same-sexmarriage. During the Republican primaries, conventional wisdom held thatit's all about the economy, so social issues should stay onthe back burner. Will Romney, as the presumptive GOP nominee, givemarriage enough attention? Gov. Romney was very forthright in signing our pledge, which callsfor a federal marriage amendment. Obviously, given the hugeeconomic problem our country faces, that's going to be anissue. But I believe candidates can walk and chew gum at the sametime. I expect that we'll continue to get that strong supportfrom Gov. Romney and that will make very clear in voters'minds that they've got a choice here. This issue will be amajor part of President Obama being a one-term president. What do you make of the polls that seem to indicate increasingpublic support for gay marriage? When voters address the issuedirectly in referenda they have so far always rejected it. The polls showing support for same-sex marriage are not worth thepaper they're written on. In every single state wherewe've helped manage a constitutional amendment campaign,polls consistently underrepresented support for traditionalmarriage. On average it was by about 6 percent, sometimes a lotmore. The polls suggested we were in jeopardy of losing NorthCarolina, yet 61 percent voted to protect marriage. Many of these polls don't actually focus on voters, andsecondly they use completely biased language. [For example, onequestion was], "Do you believe same-sex marriage should beillegal?" Well, "illegal" conjures up images ofpeople being put in jail. If you ask the question point-blank,"Do you oppose or support same-sex marriage?" themajority of Americans oppose same-sex marriage. If this is true, why do Democrats think talking about same-sexmarriage is going to help them? People say, President Obama is very smart, and his team is verysmart, why would they do this if there wasn't a reason? Theymust know more than we do. They don't. There is a cult ofwishful thinking among Democrats. They were claiming at one pointthat we were going to lose Proposition 8 by 18 points [it passedwith 52 percent]. And whenever there's a poll that buttresseswhat they believe, they trumpet it from the hills, but it'sjust not based in the electoral realities of the votes. And so thatmeans that they make really big mistakes. Same-sex marriage supporters often say that they are on the"right side of history." How does that influence thedebate? Sun Tzu said that the best victory is the victory of the battlenever fought. The notion is that if they continue to say thatit's inevitable, then those of us who believe and know in ourhearts that marriage is the union of a man and a woman will simplygive up. I can say that I know that many of us will never give up.It's important that we explode that myth. This is not evitable. This is in the hands of the citizens todecide. It's critical that people realize that we arecontinuing to win and that people get out and vote for thecandidates that will support traditional marriage. Join the conversation about this article. 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