Mathew D. Staver [Founder of Liberty Counsel; Dean and Professor of Law, Liberty University School of Law]: "Yesterday's California Supreme Court decision represents a raw abuse of judicial authority. In 2000, California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 22, defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The California Supreme Court overturned the will of the people by declaring Proposition 22 unconstitutional. In its decision, the court held what no other court had yet done — that sexual orientation is a suspect classification, requiring application of a strict scrutiny analysis.

For those states considering whether to reach a "compromise" on the issue of same-sex marriage by giving same-sex couples some benefits of marriage, yesterday's decision represents a warning bell. The court explained that because the state had gradually given more benefits to same-sex couples, the state constitution now required the state to confer the right of marriage.

Addressing our argument that permitting same-sex couples to marry would sever the link between procreation and child-rearing and send a message to the next generation that children do not need a mom and dad, the court inexplicably concluded that it would not. But when California puts its stamp of approval on a relationship between two people of the same-sex, who by definition cannot procreate, and instructs our children in public schools that a family with two moms or two dads is just as normal and acceptable as a marriage between a man and a woman (which has happened in Massachusetts through mandated family diversity training), it necessarily sends the message to our children that moms and dads do not matter.

While saddened by yesterday's decision, we are confident that the legal impact of this decision will spur voters in California to pass a state constitutional amendment and reinvigorate the national efforts for a federal constitutional amendment."