Appellate judges
being asked to strike down a New York State law
banning same-sex marriage were told Monday that gay and
lesbian couples are being denied a fundamental right
under the state constitution. The appellate division
of the state supreme court heard arguments in three
separate cases brought on behalf of gay couples denied
marriage licenses. The similar cases are among a
handful that could eventually end up before the state
's highest court, the court of appeals, which is widely
expected to make the ultimate judicial decision on the
legality of same-sex marriage in New York.
With some of the gay couples looking on, lawyers
told a five-judge panel that their clients were being
unfairly denied marriage-related benefits such
as health insurance and favorable home-loan interest
rates. "This is not a case about abstract principles.
This is a case about real people...who are deprived of
benefits by the state of New York," said Roberta Kaplan.
Kaplan is helping the American Civil Liberties
Union represent 13 same-sex couples--including
the brother of comedian Rosie O'Donnell and his
longtime partner--who claim that state health
regulations defining marriage as being the union of
only a man and a woman violate the state
constitution's equal protection, privacy, and due-process provisions.
Gov. George Pataki's health department and state
attorney general Eliot Spitzer have said New York
prohibits municipal clerks from issuing licenses to
same-sex couples. Peter Schiff, senior counsel with the
attorney general's office, told the judges that the
plaintiffs wanted the courts to rewrite the definition
of marriage. He said that job is best handled by the
legislative branch of government. "It's up to the
legislature to determine whether marriage should be extended
to same-sex couples," he said.
Schiff also argued against lawyers for 25
couples turned down for marriage licenses by the
Ithaca city clerk and two couples denied licenses in
Albany after being wed in a Unitarian church. Schiff faced
sometimes sharp questions from judges asking what the
state's interest was in barring same-sex couples from marriage.
Trial-level courts have ruled against the
plaintiffs. All three cases were filed last year, a
time when the marriage issue roiled the country from
Boston to San Francisco. The controversy landed in New York
after the mayor of the Hudson Valley village of New
Paltz married about two dozen gay couples in February
2004. Mayor Jason West was charged with violating the
state's domestic relations law, but prosecutors dropped the
charges this summer.
The three cases argued Monday follow
appellate-level arguments made last month in New York
City on behalf of another set of gay couples. In that
case, state supreme court justice Doris Ling-Cohan found
that the state law banning same-sex marriage was
unconstitutional. Once the appellate division renders
decisions in these cases, lawyers can ask the court of
appeals to consider them.
Tonja Alvis and Kathy Tuggle of Schenectady,
coplaintiffs in the ACLU case, said the long court
fight will be worth it if they are extended the same
rights and benefits of heterosexual couples. "We just want
the same sense of security everyone else wakes up
with," Alvis said. (AP)