Monte Neil Stewart (born 1949) is the founding president of the Marriage Law Foundation, the former

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

for

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, and a former Special Assistant Attorney General and Counsel to the

Governor of Utah A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Early life and education

Stewart was born in

St. George, Utah St. George is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Utah, United States. Located in southwestern Utah on the Arizona border, it is the principal city of the St. George Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The city lies in the northe ...

to Neil Stewart and his wife Velma Heaton. Stewart received his B.A. from

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

, summa cum laude, in 1973. He attended

J. Reuben Clark Law School The J. Reuben Clark Law School (BYU Law or JRCLS) is the graduate law school of Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. Founded in 1973, the school is named after J. Reuben Clark, a former U.S. Ambassador, Undersecretary of State, and g ...

as well, graduating summa cum laude and first in his class in 1976, after which he clerked for

United States Circuit Judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. Cou ...

John Clifford Wallace John Clifford Wallace (born December 11, 1928) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the South ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

and then Chief Justice Warren Burger of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. In 2004, Stewart received a M.St. with distinction from

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in legal research.

Career

From 1992 to 1993 Stewart served as

for the District of Nevada pursuant to a rare appointment by the Federal Judges of that District, and later was a legal advisor to Governor Michael Leavitt of Utah from 2001 to 2003. Stewart has been involved in private practice and was for a time a law professor at

at BYU. In 2004 Stewart was a co-chair of ''Utahns for a Better Tomorrow'', one of the four sponsors of Utah Amendment 3 which limited marriage to male-female couples and prevented the recognition of civil unions or domestic partnerships. Stewart has used social institutions theory in many papers to argue against

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

. Among many other participations, Stewart was an invited participant in a Vermont Law School meeting on marriage and family in October 2007. An article by him also appeared in the

Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy The ''Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy'' is a law review for conservative and libertarian legal scholarship. It was established by Harvard Law School students Spencer Abraham and Stephen Eberhard in 1978, leading to the founding of the Fed ...

Vol. 31, no. 1. Stewart also wrote a biography of Jesse Lamb Stewart. Stewart filed ''

amicus curiae An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...

'' briefs in California's ''In Re Marriage Cases'' litigation and in Iowa's ''

Varnum v. Brien ''Varnum v. Brien'', 763 N.W.2d 862 (Iowa 2009), was an Iowa Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously held that the state's limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples violated the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution. The ...

'' case on behalf of United Families International,

Family Watch International Family Watch International (FWI) is a fundamentalist Christian lobbying organization. Founded in 1999, the organization opposes homosexuality, legal abortion, birth control, comprehensive sex education, and other things that it regards as threat ...

and the Family Leader Foundation. In late 2013 Stewart was hired by Utah Attorney General

Sean Reyes Sean David Reyes is an American lawyer and politician who has been the Attorney General of Utah since 2013. Appointed to the office by Governor Gary Herbert following the resignation of John Swallow, Reyes was subsequently reelected. Reyes is a ...

to act as the state's agent in defending the ban on same sex marriage.''Deseret News'', Dec. 31, 2013
/ref>

Personal life

Stewart and his wife, the former Anne Lillywhite, are the parents of ten children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Monte N. 1949 births Alumni of the University of Oxford American Latter Day Saints J. Reuben Clark Law School alumni Brigham Young University faculty Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Living people Mission presidents (LDS Church) Nevada lawyers People from St. George, Utah United States Attorneys for the District of Nevada Utah lawyers

Early life and education

Career

Personal life

See also

References