New Jersey Court backs gay marriages

TRENTON – The gay marriage issue in the state of New Jersey is moving from a legal dispute to a political one.

The state Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that New Jersey must extend all the rights of marriage to gay couples. But the justices left it to state lawmakers to decide whether to provide those rights in the form of marriages, civil unions or something else – and gave the Legislature 180 days to reach a decision.Three justices, including Chief Justice Deborah Poritz, dissented, arguing that the four-member majority did not go far enough.They demanded gay couples be given the right to marry.Several Democratic lawmakers said they would push for full marriage rights.But some Republicans, the minority party in both houses of the Legislature, said they would seek a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.Republican Assemblyman Richard Merkt vowed to have the justices impeached.”Neither the framers of New Jersey’s 1947 constitution, nor the voters who ratified it, ever remotely contemplated the possibility of same-sex marriage,” Merkt said.State Senate President Richard J Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr pledged in a joint statement to block an anti-gay marriage amendment.They also complained that the court-imposed deadline allows too little time to define the type of union that would be granted to gay couples.The New Jersey Supreme Court ruling is similar to the 1999 high-court ruling in Vermont that led that state to create civil unions, which confer all the rights and benefits available to married couples under state law.National gay rights advocates embraced the ruling.Lara Schwartz, legal director of Human Rights Campaign, said if legislators have to choose between civil unions and marriage, it is a no-lose situation for gay couples.Nampa-APBut the justices left it to state lawmakers to decide whether to provide those rights in the form of marriages, civil unions or something else – and gave the Legislature 180 days to reach a decision.Three justices, including Chief Justice Deborah Poritz, dissented, arguing that the four-member majority did not go far enough.They demanded gay couples be given the right to marry.Several Democratic lawmakers said they would push for full marriage rights.But some Republicans, the minority party in both houses of the Legislature, said they would seek a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.Republican Assemblyman Richard Merkt vowed to have the justices impeached.”Neither the framers of New Jersey’s 1947 constitution, nor the voters who ratified it, ever remotely contemplated the possibility of same-sex marriage,” Merkt said.State Senate President Richard J Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr pledged in a joint statement to block an anti-gay marriage amendment.They also complained that the court-imposed deadline allows too little time to define the type of union that would be granted to gay couples.The New Jersey Supreme Court ruling is similar to the 1999 high-court ruling in Vermont that led that state to create civil unions, which confer all the rights and benefits available to married couples under state law.National gay rights advocates embraced the ruling.Lara Schwartz, legal director of Human Rights Campaign, said if legislators have to choose between civil unions and marriage, it is a no-lose situation for gay couples.Nampa-AP