New Jersey...
So, the NJ Supreme Court has mandated Civil Unions. There is some interesting logic and legal stuff in there I don't have time to tease out, but one thing really caught my eye:
Am I mistaken, or does this give way for gays to sue if the Catholic (or any other) church doesn't marry them? Anyway, the whole opinion is here, and it's an interesting read.
However the Legislature may act, same-sex couples will be free to call their relationships by the name they choose and to sanctify their relationships in religious ceremonies in houses of worship.
Am I mistaken, or does this give way for gays to sue if the Catholic (or any other) church doesn't marry them? Anyway, the whole opinion is here, and it's an interesting read.
posted by Adam at 7:53 PM
2 Comments:
They can't force any church to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony. The Catholic church isn't bound to perform a heterosexual marriage, they can refuse to marry anyone.
The decision was saying that even if the legislature chooses not to call it marriage, same-sex couples are more than welcome to call it marriage themselves and should a house of worship have such a liturgy (e.g. ECUSA), then they can go ahead and perform a ceremony. Roberts v. United States Jaycees says the government can't force any group to accept a member it doesn't desire if such forced member's presence affects in a significant way the group's ability to advocate public or private viewpoints.
Interestingly, the case was "4-3" but the 4 were for "equal rights" while the dissenting 3 argued for full marriage (much like Goodridge in Massachusetts).
It was a unanimous decision for equal rights, they were just split on the implementation.
Yeah...I thought that was interesting too and forgot to mention it. The dissent, in this case, was dissenting because they saw the difference between marraige and civil unions as seperate but equal...so, all the judges agreed that more rights were neccessary. Interesting...
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