New Jersey court makes up right to gay marriage

AP:

New Jersey's highest court opened the door Wednesday to making the state the second in the nation to allow gay marriage, ruling that lawmakers must offer homosexuals either marriage or something like it, such as civil unions.

In a ruling that fell short of what either side wanted or feared, the state Supreme Court declared 4-3 that homosexual couples are entitled to the same rights as heterosexual ones. The justices gave lawmakers 180 days to rewrite the laws.

The ruling is similar to the 1999 high-court ruling in Vermont that led the state to create civil unions, which confer all of the rights and benefits available to married couples under state law.

"Although we cannot find that a fundamental right to same-sex marriage exists in this state, the unequal dispensation of rights and benefits to committed same-sex partners can no longer be tolerated under our state Constitution," Justice Barry T. Albin wrote for the four-member majority.

...

That is quite an admission. they cannot find that a fundamental right to same-sex marriage exists so they are ordering the state legislature to right one. There is nothing like confirming the belief of conservatives that judges will make up the law right before an election.

The lawyers at Power Line think they were making it up too.

Comments

  1. Aaron Weber8:47 AM

    That's not at all what they said. They said that although marriage isn't specifically listed as a right, the state does grant a set of benefits related to marriage. Those rights are currently given only to straight couples, and that's not fair.

    The reasoning is that if the state wants to grant any benefits to couples, they have to do it equally, regardless of the sexuality of the couple.

    ReplyDelete

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