News
2005-12-10
New York court:
No to same-sex marriage
Pro-marriage
ruling is overturned
In reversing a
decision that declared New York's gay and lesbian couples
Efforts to assert
marriage equality in New York hit a major bump in the
road on Thursday when the state’s appellate court
reversed a lower-court decision, which said
denying gay couples marriage was unconstitutional. In
a 4–1 ruling the state appellate division overturned
the February ruling of judge Doris Ling-Cohan and chastised
her decision.
"We find it even
more troubling that the court, upon determining the
statute to be unconstitutional, proceeded to rewrite it and
purportedly create a new constitutional right," the
four majority justices said. The one dissenting judge
declared that denying marriage to New York’s gay
couples “is contrary to the basic principles
underlying our constitution, our legal system, and our
concepts of liberty and justice, and perpetuates a
deeply ingrained form of legalized discrimination.”
Michael
Bloomberg, New York City's Republican mayor, was responsible
for handing the case to the appellate court after he
appealed Ling-Cohan’s decision.
The case was
brought by five Manhattan same-sex couples seeking marriage
rights. Susan Sommer of the gay rights group Lambda Legal,
who represented the five couples, expressed
disappointment at the case’s early defeat.
"While we believe the trial court got it right, we
anticipated that this case would be heard before the state's
high court," Sommer said.
The case,
Hernandez v. Robles, is one of three currently
working their way up the legal system to New York's
highest state court. (Advocate.com)
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