TRENTON, N.J. — Supporters of gay “marriage” said they would press on with their fight despite the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision not to hear a case in which six same-sex couples asked for the right to marry. “We … will never give up — not until our dying breath,” said Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, the state’s largest gay rights organization. Goldstein said the announcement July 26 by the state’s highest court maintains the unequal legal status of same-sex couples.
Though the court said it won’t consider the case now, it left open the possibility it could hear it in the future. The justices said the case needs to be filed anew in Superior Court — where it originated eight years ago — and wind its way back up. “This matter cannot be decided without the development of an appropriate triallike record,” the court said. The seven-member court currently has one vacancy, and the remaining six justices were split down the middle, one vote short of the four votes needed to grant a motion.
In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples were due the full rights and benefits of heterosexual married couples, but left it up to the Legislature to provide those rights, leading to the 2006 civil union law. Armed with a legislative commission report saying civil unions had failed to achieve equal status for gay couples, same-sex “marriage” advocates pushed for full marriage rights. But after the state Senate rejected the gay “marriage” bill, the case made its way back to the state’s highest court. (TAB)
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