Tag: same-sex marriage

Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson has ruled that same-sex couples must be allowed to marry in order to obtain equal protection under the state constitution and ordered them to begin on October 21st.

AP: “In a summary judgment issued Friday, Judge Mary Jacobson says now that the federal government recognizes gay marriages, not doing so in New Jersey would violate the state constitution.”

From NBC New York:  Judge Mary Jacobson granted a summary judgment requested by Garden State Equality, which had claimed that the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of the federal Defense of Marriage Act meant that same-sex couples in civil unions in New Jersey were being denied equal protection.

From NJ.com :  The gay rights groups Garden State Equality and Lambda Legal had argued that after the U.S. Supreme Court extended more than 1,000 tax and inheritance benefits to same-sex couples in June, New Jersey was left behind with second-class civil unions.

Jacobson, the head judge in Mercer County, agreed:

“The ineligibility of same-sex couples for federal benefits is currently harming same-sex couples in New Jersey in a wide range of contexts,” she wrote.  (Emphasis is mine).

For example, the judge said, “civil union partners who are federal employees living in New Jersey are ineligible for marital rights with regard to the federal pension system, all civil union partners who are employees working for businesses to which the Family and Medical Leave Act applies may not rely on its statutory protections for spouses, and civil union couples may not access the federal tax benefits that married couples enjoy.”

Jacobson was asked to square the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June striking down the Defense of Marriage Act with New Jersey’s own legal precedents.

New Jersey would become the 14th state to recognize same-sex marriage.

The decision is expected to be appealed, first to an intermediate court, and then to the state Supreme Court.

Today’s ruling below:

From the editorial board of the Trenton Times:

It’s only a matter of time before same-sex marriage is legal in New Jersey.

If history is any guide, individual states are achingly slow in catching up with the individuals who have embraced their civil rights as the personal liberties guaranteed by the by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It took nearly a century after the Civil War for Congress to pass a law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Still, in this evolved age, when science holds that sexual identity is no more a choice than eye color or race, it’s hard to believe that laws forbidding the marriage of same-sex couples remain.

Gay and lesbian couples in New Jersey are not being treated equally under the law. As Times columnist George Amick wrote in his recent analysis, the court “ended any pretense that New Jersey’s law authorizing civil unions affords the equal rights and privileges to same-sex couples to which the New Jersey Supreme Court has said they’re entitled.” 

State legislators will have the opportunity to recognize those rights in a vote — promised by Democrats after the November election — attempting to override Gov. Chris Christie’s veto of a measure legalizing same-sex marriage. To succeed, lawmakers will have to muster a super-majority of support. Advocates are busy lobbying about a dozen Republicans and reluctant Democrats to stand up for the majority of New Jerseyans who approve of same-sex marriages.

We hope their consciences recognize that liberty and justice for all must include allowing same-sex couples to marry.

A recent July Quinnipiac poll finds that 60 percent of New Jersey voters support marriage equality, while only 31 percent are opposed.

I should note that my husband, Michael, is from New Jersey. While we look forward to the day when marriage equality is legal everywhere, New Jersey is definitely on our “short list” of states we’d like to see pass this important legislation sooner than later.