Policy Forum 

# Law, Politics, and Same-Sex Marriage 

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Date and Time 

March 27, 2013 1 - 2:30 PM EDT 

Location 

Hayek Auditorium 

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##### Featuring 

Featuring **Ilya Shapiro**, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute Center for Constitutional Studies; **Ken Mehlman**, Former Chair, Republican National Committee; and **Evan Wolfson**, Founder and Executive Director, Freedom to Marry; moderated by **Walter Olson**, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute Center for Constitutional Studies. 

On March 26 and 27, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in potential landmark cases on the rights of same-sex couples: *U.S. v. Windsor*, a challenge to the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA); and *Hollingsworth v. Perry*, a challenge to California’s Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage. Is the United States moving toward legal equality between gay and straight couples? What does the U.S. Constitution have to say about the question? And should the Republican Party, long committed to opposing gay marriage, rethink its position? Two of the nation’s best-known advocates on the issue — Evan Wolfson, widely seen as the master strategist behind the movement for same-sex marriage, and Ken Mehlman, a key figure in Republican rethinking of the issue, will be joined by Ilya Shapiro, who heads the Cato Institute’s amicus program and presided over the development of Cato’s briefs in *Windsor* and *Perry*.

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