CAP, Cato Heads Call for Marriage Equality

John Podesta and Robert Levy (pictured), the heads of the progressive Center for American Progress and the libertarian Cato Institute, respectively, will cochair the advisory board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which launched the ongoing federal court challenge to Proposition 8. Podesta and Levy wrote an op-ed published Tuesday in The Washington Post, where they called for marriage equality for all couples.

"Although we serve, respectively, as president of a progressive and chairman of a libertarian think tank, we are not joining the foundation's advisory board to present a 'bipartisan' front," write Podesta and Levy. "Rather, we have come together in a nonpartisan fashion because the principle of equality before the law transcends the left-right divide and cuts to the core of our nation's character. This is not about politics; it's about an indispensable right vested in all Americans."

Closing arguments in the Prop 8 case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, are scheduled for next Wednesday in a federal court in California. The case appears likely to be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.