New Jersey High Court Leaves Gay Marriage Rights to Legislature
Somewhat of a misleading title from FoxNews. The court has basically uphead that gays can get married in New Jersey.
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey’s Supreme Court has left it to the Legislature to decide the rules for gay couples who want to marry in the state.
In a 4-3 ruling Wednesday, the court said the state constitution gives same-sex couples the same civil rights afforded to heterosexual couples, but the lawmakers must decide how to grant those rights.
“The Legislature must either amend the marriage statutes to include same-sex couples or create a parallel statutory structure, which will provide for, on equal terms, the rights and benefits enjoyed and burdens and obligations borne by married couples,” the court held.
Here’s more from Michelle Malkin:
Gotta go skim the opinion. Early reports on Fox suggested the court had ruled that nothing in the state constitution prevents gay marriage, but the part quoted by Instapundit says quite a bit more than that.
It sounds like they’ll let the legislature put whatever label they want on it — “marriage,” “civil unions,” etc. — but that the state’s equal protection clause requires that the incidents of marriage be made available to same-sex couples to the same degree as they are to straights.
Good news for the GOP? Probably no effect, I’d bet.
Update: Yup, that’s what they ruled — the legislature can either rewrite the marriage statute to include gays or they can leave marriage for straights and enact a separate civil union statute that grants gays the same rights as married couples.
The media’s describing this as a 4-3 decision, but that’s misleading. The three dissenters didn’t object to the main ruling that marriage rights should be extended to gay couples; on that point, it was 7-0. What they objected to is the fact that the court gave the legislature a choice of labels instead of forcing them to include gay unions under the rubric of “marriage.” I.e., the dissenters were even more radical than the majority.
Keep in mind that when this issue has come before voters, traditional marriage has won hands down every time. The only way for gay marriage to have a chance is through liberal courts.
