Florida State University College of Law Scholarship Repository Scholarly Publications Winter 2012 The Terms of the Debate: Litigation, Argumentative Strategies, and Coalitions in the Same-Sex Marriage Struggle Mary Ziegler Florida State University College of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.law.fsu.edu/articles Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, and the Litigation Commons Recommended Citation Mary Ziegler, The Terms of the Debate: Litigation, Argumentative Strategies, and Coalitions in the Same- Sex Marriage Struggle, 39 FLA. ST. U. L. REV. 467 (2012), Available at: https://ir.law.fsu.edu/articles/332 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Scholarly Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE TERMS OF THE DEBATE: LITIGATION, ARGUMENTATIVE STRATEGIES, AND COALITIONS IN THE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE STRUGGLE MARY ZIEGLER ABSTRACT Why, in the face of ongoing criticism, do advocates of same-sex marriage continue to pursue litigation? Recently, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a challenge to California’s ban on same-sex marriage, and Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, a lawsuit challenging section three of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, have created divisive debate. Leading scholarship and commentary on the litigation of decisions like Perry and Gill have been strongly critical, predicting that it will produce a backlash that will undermine the same- sex marriage cause. These studies all rely on a particular historical account of past same-sex marriage decisions and their effect on political debate.