Gay Activists Target High Court with 'It's Time' Ad
WASHINGTON -- Top gay marriage advocates are trying to sway U.S. Supreme Court justices with a new ad airing just as the court starts its new term.
When the justices gather for the start of the 2014-2015 term, they'll be considering whether to take up one or more of seven petitions concerning same-sex marriage cases from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The Freedom to Marry campaign will begin airing a 30-second TV ad in the Washington D.C. area Sunday called "It's Time."
The ad suggests same-sex couples face harm and discrimination in the 31 states that still forbid gay marriage.
Some analysts suggest the justices can be swayed by public and media pressure.
The ad ends with the line, "Every day of denial means real harm to real families. It's time to end marriage discrimination."
The campaign comes as a new Pew poll shows a significant drop nationally in support for gay marriage nationally, from 54 to 49 percent in just a few months.
Advocates for same-sex marriage feel they could win a major victory since the court is still made up of the same justices who gave those advocates such a big win last year.
With its ruling 15 months ago in "United States v. Windsor," the high court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and said the federal government couldn't discriminate against gay couples who wed in the states where same-sex marriage is legal.
But at the same time, the court basically left it up to the states to decide if they wanted to legalize gay marriage.
Now advocates hope that this term justices will side with the more than three dozen recent court decisions favoring same-sex marriage and maybe even legalize the practice nationwide.
Still, some of the justices may be leery of making such a wide-reaching decision with more than half the states still opposed to gay marriage.
There's a general consensus the court kicked off more than 40 years of painful national controversy by wresting the decision about legalizing abortion from the states with the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that suddenly forced it on all of them.
