2015-07-22

The Conservative Action Project has released a “Memo to the Movement” on the state of religious liberty in the United States.

The project was founded by former Attorney General Edwin Meese and includes leaders of over 100 organizations in the conservative movement.

The signatories urge that “we must act now to protect religious liberty in America.”

They criticized the Supreme Court’s decision on Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states.

The decision, they said, “stripped more than 50 million Americans of their votes.”

“The court’s ruling fundamentally transforms the relationship between the American people and those in power,” they said. “Justice Alito noted this reality in his dissent: ‘Most Americans—understandably—will cheer or lament today’s decision because of their views on the issue of same-sex marriage. But all Americans, whatever their thinking on that issue, should worry about what the majority’s claim of power portends.’”

They called the ruling “abuse of power” of “historic proportions.”

The letter also says that the fine and gag order placed on Aaron and Melissa Klein after they declined to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding ceremony demonstrates an “assault on our most essential freedoms.”

“We stand united for the freedom to live according to one’s beliefs about marriage. And we will continue to speak courageously, and compassionately about the unchanging truth of marriage as the union of a man and a woman,” the writers conclude.

Signatories include Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, businessman and former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the president of the American Alliance of Jews and Christians.

Below is the complete list of signatories. Their organizations have been included for identification purposes only.

Edwin Meese III

Former Attorney General under President Ronald Reagan

Becky Norton Dunlop

Chairman of CAP and former White House Advisor to President Ronald Reagan

Tony Perkins

President of the Family Research Council

Kenneth Blackwell

Chairman of Constitutional Congress, Inc.

William L. Walton

Vice President of the Council for National Policy

Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin (Ret.)

Executive Vice President of the Family Research Council

Alfred S. Regnery

Chairman of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund

Bob McEwen

Executive Director of the Council for National Policy

Colin A. Hanna

President of Let Freedom Ring, Inc.

Erick Erickson

Editor-in-Chief, RedState.com

Michael A. Needham

Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Action for America

Brent Bozell III

Chairman of ForAmerica

Susan A. Carleson

Chairman and CEO of American Civil Rights Union

Austin Ruse

President of the Center for Family & Human Rights

Bill Dallas

CEO of United in Purpose

Rabbi Daniel Lapin

President of the American Alliance of Jews and Christians

Everett Piper

President of Oklahoma Wesleyan University

Somers H. White CPAE, FIMC

Former Arizona State Senator

Grace-Marie Turner

President of the Galen Institute

Floyd Brown

Western Center for Journalism

Dr. Rick Scarborough

President of Vision America Action

Herman Cain

President and CEO of Hermancain.com

Ralph J. Benko

Chairman of Center for Civic Virtue

Gary L. Bauer

President of American Values

Frank Schubert

President of Mission Public Affairs, LLC

Gary Marx

Senior Partner of Madison Strategies

Edward Whelan

President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center

David W. Preston

Executive Director of the Oklahoma Wesleyan University Foundation

Bradley Mattes

President of Life Issues Institute

Kevin Kookogey

Linchpins of Liberty

Nadine Maenza

Executive Director of Patriot Voices

Terrence Scanlon

President of the Capital Research Center

Ron Robinson

President of the Young America’s Foundation

Mario H. Lopez

President of the Hispanic Leadership Fund

Charles J. Cooper

Cooper & Kirk, PLLC

Curt Levey

President of The Committee for Justice

Donna Hearne

CEO of the Constitutional Coalition

Jerry A. Johnson

President and CEO of National Religious Broadcasters

Ronald Cameron

Chairman of the Mountaire Corporation

Ted Baehr

Publisher of Movieguide(r)

Chairman of Christian Film & Television

Commission(r)

Kelly Shackelford

President, CEO and Chief Counsel of the Liberty Institute

James C. Miller III

Former Director of OMB under President Ronald Reagan

Kenneth Cribb Jr.

Former Domestic Advisor to President Ronald Reagan

Rebecca Hagelin

Member of the Board of Directors of Family Talk

Leslee J. Unruh

Founder of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse and Alpha Center

Dr. Allen D. Unruh

Co-Founder of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse

Penny Y. Nance

President and CEO of Concerned Women for America

Morton Blackwell

Chairman of The Weyrich Lunch

Joel Anand Samy

Co-Founder and President of the International Leaders Summit

Larry L. Eastland

Former Staff Assistant to President Ford

Kirby A. Wilbur

Executive Director of the National Journalism Center

Donald J. Devine

Senior Scholar of The Fund for American Studies

John Taylor

President of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy

Tom DeLay

Former Majority Leader

Richard A. Viguerie

Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com

Cleta Mitchell

Joseph A. Morris

Morris & De La Rosa

Marc Rotterman

Former Treasurer of the ACU

Founding President of the John Locke Foundation

Senior Fellow of the John Locke Foundation

Andrea S. Lafferty

President of the Traditional Values Coalition

Peter Thomas

Chairman of Americans for Constitutional Liberty

R. Jerry Grossman

Co-founder of the Great Falls Philosophical Forum

Craig Shirley

Reagan Biographer

Elaine Donnelly

President of the Center for Military Readiness

Belden Bell

U.S. Ambassador (Ret.)

Thomas S. Winter

Jim Backlin

Christian Coalition of America

Bill Simon Jr.

Co-Chairman of William E. Simon & Sons LLC

Richard Gaby

Founder and CEO of A K Rikk’s

Barbara Van Andel-Gaby

Owner/Board of Trustees of Alticor Inc.

The post Conservative Action Project: ‘We Must Act Now to Protect Religious Liberty in America’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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