Lawyer-Wearing-Yarmulka

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Gay Marriage In New Jersey Coming Soon?

The New Jersey Supreme Court will issue it's ruling on same-sex marriage tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. I have no doubt that they will rule in favor of SSM, as the Court is one the most liberal courts in the U.S.

In the interest of saving time, I'd think that they would just copy the text of

Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, except for the small problem that the New Jersey Constitution doesn't have an Equal Protection Clause. I'm curious as to how the Court is going to work its way around this issue.

While I am obviously no fan of a court changing a state's marriage laws, I do realize that this could be quite helpful for the GOP's election chances. Nothing gets people more riled up that "activist judges". Just look at the 2004 election. This may end up hurting Bob Menendez's chance at keeping his Senate seat, and if the Democrats want to take over the Senate, they're going to need every seat possible.

The ironic thing is, based on polls, at least 50% of New Jerseyians favor SSM. Why are they pushing this in the legislature? For every state that legalizes SSM through judicial fiat, several states go in the opposite direction and amend their constitution to make sure their state judges don't do the same.

[UPDATE]

Looks like the Court played it safe. Civil unions, but no marriage. This will still help the GOP though.

posted by LWY, 8:41 PM

4 Comments:

I just read Goodridge for my Property Law class today, and after discussing various merits and demerits of property-related issues for SSM, I discovered that a significant portion of the class is NOT against legalizing polygamy!

Irina Tsukerman, at 10/24/2006 9:34 PM

Looks like the Court played it safe. Civil unions, but no marriage. This will still help the GOP though.

Wow. And you're proud to be a part of that party?

Jewish Atheist, at 10/25/2006 11:34 PM

I'm proud to be part of a party that believes that social policy should be decided by the legislature and not the courts. And if this ruling leads to more GOP'ers going to the polls to ensure a Republican majority in the Senate, one who would affirm SC Justices like Roberts and Alito, then I will be quite happy.

Has the GOP made mistakes? Hell yeah. But in a two-party system, the alternative is having the Democrats running the show. I don't want that.

Lawyer-Wearing-Yarmulka, at 10/26/2006 12:17 AM

David: What I meant was that a great number of people really had nothing against it, probably because, as you said, it's a non-issue right now.

Irina Tsukerman, at 10/26/2006 9:13 PM

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