New Jersey High Court Dictates Same-Sex Marriage By Whatever Name
For Immediate Release: 10/25/2006
http://www.afa.net/clp/ReleaseDetail.asp?id=133Tupelo, MS - Acknowledging that it could not find that same-sex marriage is a fundamental right under the state’s constitution, the New Jersey Supreme Court today nonetheless ordered the state legislature to amend the state marriage statutes or otherwise enact a statutory structure within 180 days that provides “every statutory right and benefit of marriage”.
Relying upon “changing social mores and values,” the court held that the state constitution’s equal protection clause entitled same-sex couples the same rights and benefits afforded to married heterosexual couples. Declining, however, to determine that same-sex couples be allowed to marry, the court instead ordered the state legislature to confer the same rights and benefits on same-sex couples as heterosexual couples, whether through formal marriage or some other statutory structure.
“The New Jersey Supreme Court today effectively establishes legislative policy and leaves only to the New Jersey legislature to give it a formal name,” stated Bruce W. Green, Vice-President for Law & Policy at the American Family Association. “While issuing its decision in the context of a legal proceeding, the court runs afoul of the separation of powers doctrine by ordering the state’s legislative body to obey its commands. Give same-sex couples ‘marriage’ by whatever name you choose, but give it to them within 180 days,” added Green.
New Jersey Supreme Court Orders State To Give Homosexuals All Benefits of "Marriage" Except The Name "Marriage"
Concerned Women for America, the organization that had campaigned to preserve marriage in New Jersey, said the case was a “textbook” example of an activist group using the “agenda-driven” judges and courts to overturn and subvert the legislative process.
CWA’s Chief Counsel Jan LaRue said that the court ignored 28 statute sections that include references to the term 'married woman' and 'married man' and the term 'husband and wife.'
LaRue warned that because New Jersey has no residency requirement for marriage the state was carefully chosen as a test case. “If the legislature caves in to the court, it could open the door for lawsuits challenging every state’s marriage law.”
FULL STORY at
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/oct/06102507.html
NJ Court Stops Just Short Of Gay Marriage Ok
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7005295951
N.J. Court Grants Gay Couples Equal Marriage Rights
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-10-25T232029Z_01_EIC567928_RTRUKOC_0_US-RIGHTS-GAYS1.xml&src=rss&rpc=22