New York State's
highest court Thursday declined to hear two cases contesting
the state law that bars same-sex couples from getting
married. The court of appeals ruled it does not have the
jurisdiction to hear the cases before they first go to a
lower appellate court. In February, state supreme court
justice Doris Ling-Cohan ruled that the state law is
unconstitutional, finding in favor of five same-sex couples
who had been denied marriage licenses by New York City. The
judge said the city clerk may not deny a license to any
couple solely because the two are of the same sex.
The city is appealing the judge's ruling. It filed to
skip the appellate level court and have the case heard by
the court of appeals, the state's highest court. The couples
in the case also wanted to skip the intermediate court. The
court of appeals, however, hears cases directly from the
trial-level court only when there is a question of a law's
constitutionality. Since other issues are also involved in
the case, the panel sent it back to the lower appellate
court. "The court of appeals decision not to review this
case without an intermediate court ruling...unfortunately,
will not give the gay and lesbian community clarity on this
important issue as quickly as I had hoped," said Mayor
Michael Bloomberg, who supports same-sex marriage but
appealed Ling-Cohan's ruling on legal grounds.
Susan Sommer, a senior counsel for Lambda Legal,
which filed one of the lawsuits, said she is "disappointed
that it will take more time to resolve this case." Another
case out of Albany also challenged the state law, but the
statute was upheld by the trial court. The plaintiffs in
that case also tried to have the case heard directly by the
court of appeals but were denied. (AP)
