New Jersey's Supreme Court ruled yesterday at 3:00 p.m. that homosexuals are entitled to the same marriage rights as heterosexuals, but left lawmakers to decide whether to legalize same-sex unions, according to CNN.
The court, in a 4-3 ruling, gave lawmakers 180 days to rewrite marriage laws to either include same-sex couples or make civil unions possible. Their decision resembled the 1999 decision in Vermont that led to civil unions, which guarantee the same rights as marriage under a different title.
Massachusetts remains the only state with a constitution that guarantees full marriage rights for all citizens, which passed the Supreme Judicial Court in 2003 and took effect in 2004. According to Bloomberg, New Jersey is one of only five states with no statutory or constitutional ban on gay marriage.
According to Reuters, the 90-page New Jersey ruling wasn't a decisive victory for gay marriage proponents.
Gay rights activists now have to "appeal to their fellow citizens whose voices are heard through their popularly elected representatives."
According to the Associated Press, the three dissenting votes on the bench were not against gay marriage, but instead felt that the majority opinion didn't go far enough. All seven justices, according to a Bloomberg article, said gay couples are entitled equal rights.
Since Massachusetts has a law barring out-of-state couples from wedding in Massachusetts if their home state forbids such a marriage, the New Jersey ruling could have had far reaching consequences.
New Jersey has no law restricting out-of-state residents from tying the knot in the state.
Lara Schwartz, legal director of Human Rights Campaign, told the AP that New Jersey legislators now have a choice between civil unions and marriage and that either is a no-lose situation for homosexual couples.
"They get to decide whether it's chocolate or double-chocolate chip," Schwartz said in the article.
According to the Boston Globe, Massachusetts Governor and potential 2008 presidential candidate Mitt Romney rebuked the ruling by reiterating his support for a national constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
"I believe that the best and most reliable way to protect traditional marriage is through a federal marriage amendment, as opposed to letting activist judges make policy on a state by state basis," Romney said in a statement to the Globe.
