Jersey Court's Pro-Homosexual Ruling Could Fuel Marriage Defense Efforts
by Allie Martin and Jim Brown
October 26, 2006
(AgapePress) - - New Jersey's Supreme Court has ruled that homosexual couples are entitled to the same rights as married heterosexual couples. In its decision, justices said it was a violation of the state's constitution to deny to same-sex couples the same marital rights and benefits enjoyed by heterosexual spouses.
The case involved seven homosexual couples who sued the State of New Jersey, claiming their rights were being violated. The high court agreed and gave state lawmakers 180 days to rewrite marriage laws to include homosexual couples or else to create civil unions in the state. Don Wildmon, founder of the Tupelo, Mississippi-based American Family Association, says this decision has national implications.
"I think what most Americans need to know more than anything else about this ruling is that the New Jersey Supreme Court just made a decision for each of us," Wildmon asserts. "And what they decided is that homosexual marriage will be legal in your state," he says.
"In Massachusetts [which has legalized homosexual marriage]," Wildmon explains, "there's a law that says you cannot come into the state and get married. However, there is no such law in the Garden State, he adds, so "you can go from any state and get married in New Jersey."
In light of these facts, the pro-family leader thinks the New Jersey court decision is likely to galvanize pro-family forces into action.
"This will increase the commitment of those of us who have been involved for three or four years now in the effort to strengthen our proposed Marriage Protection Amendment," Wildmon says. Meanwhile, he hopes the ruling will drive values voters to the polls next month in an effort to keep pro-homosexual liberals out of office and out of the judiciary. (See related article)
ADF Attorney Sees Upside to NJ Court's Same-Sex Marriage Decision
But while AFA and other Christian conservative groups are blasting the New Jersey Supreme Court's homosexual marriage ruling, one pro-family attorney claims the decision is, at least in one way, a huge loss for opponents of traditional marriage. Glen Lavy, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, contends there is both a positive and a negative side to the ruling.
"Now it was bad," Lavy acknowledges, "in the sense that the court said that same-sex couples are entitled to all the rights and benefits of marriage." However, he points out, the judges also ruled that "there is no fundamental right to same-sex marriage." That statement by the court, he insists, is crucial, as "that is a position that [traditional marriage defenders] have constantly maintained."
To date, the attorney notes, no court in the United States has ever ruled that there is a fundamental right to same-sex marriage -- not even Massachusetts. The plaintiffs in the New Jersey case "were hoping for that ruling out of this court," he contends. "They hoped to have the term 'marriage.'"
But even if the New Jersey Supreme Court denied same-sex marriage proponents the total victory they were hoping to get, Lavy feels those justices did plenty in declaring that "discrimination against gays and lesbians is no longer acceptable" in the Garden State. Their decision truly "underscores the need for the state marriage amendments," he says.
That ruling in New Jersey would have been precluded by a strong marriage protection measure such as those going on the ballot in several states across the U.S. this November, the pro-family lawyer asserts, "particularly marriage amendments like those in Arizona, Idaho, Virginia, Wisconsin, and ... South Carolina. These amendments effectively define marriage as being between a man and a woman," he says, "but also prohibit the court from creating a marriage substitute like civil unions or domestic partnerships."
The New Jersey Supreme Court's ruling on homosexual marriage reaffirms that judicial activism is alive and well in America, Lavy remarks. He is describing the court's decision as much needed "wakeup call" for people who have not yet realized the absolute necessity of providing constitutional protection for traditional marriage.
Allie Martin and Jim Brown, regular contributors to AgapePress, are reporters for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
