The stage is being set for another court battle, by gay couples who sued New Jersey for the right to marry just two months after the state Senate turned down a bill to legalize same-sex marriage.
UPDATE 6/29/11: Seven homosexual couples sue to force state to recognize gay marriage
-- From "N.J.'s gay marriage debate: Back to court because lawmakers failed" by Star-Ledger Editorial Board 3/24/10
When the state Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that same-sex couples must have the same rights as heterosexual couples under New Jersey law, the justices ducked the obvious question: Can gays get married? They left that question to the state Legislature, which found another way to avoid it, passing a law that established civil unions. They’re just like marriages, the law essentially says, but with a different name.
Except they’re not, as testimony to a state commission showed: Civil union couples still have trouble being recognized as next-of-kin by employers when they seek benefits and by hospital officials when one partner is ill. Not surprisingly, this separate institution turns out to be unequal.
Former Gov. Jon Corzine recognized that and said he wanted to establish "marriage equality" in New Jersey — but calculated it was best to wait until after last year’s election. That turned out to be a strategic blunder: Once Corzine lost to Chris Christie, who opposed changing the law, support withered. Put to a vote in the state Senate, gay marriage lost 14-20.
So now, gay rights organizations are asking the state Supreme Court to reopen the case. If it does, the court could order formal hearings, gather testimony and evidence on problems with the civil union law and then decide, yes or no: Can gays get married?
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From "Gay Marriage Battle in N.J." by Leah Jones, Christian Web News 3/23/10
A motion was filed on Thursday on behalf of the plaintiffs in the original Lewis v. Harris lawsuit, which ended up in a New Jersey Supreme Court decision that forced the state to allow all the benefits of marriage to committed homosexual couples.
Gay rights activists insist that the civil union remedy enacted by the legislature has not fulfilled the guarantee of equality promised by the court's 2006 order, even though the ruling led to the legalization of civil unions for gay couples.
Hayley Gorenberg, deputy legal director at Lambda Legal, who filed suit Thursday on behalf of the Lewis v. Harris Plaintiffs, said “The New Jersey Supreme Court ordered for same-sex couples when it decided out marriage lawsuit in 2006, and the legislature has failed to meet that crystal-clear obligation.
New Jersey's Senate turned down the bill, by a 20-14 vote, to legalize gay marriage, leaving New Hampshire and Vermont as the only states to have approved of gay marriage legislatively.
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