Happy Monday!
Congrats to New Jersey for becoming the 14th state to allow gay marriages. We learned on Friday that the New Jersey Supreme Court has given the go ahead for same-sex marriages to begin today. A New Jersey superior court judge had already ordered the state to allow gay couples to marry because their current system of civil unions was unconstitutional (based in part on Windsor). However, Governor Chris Christie’s administration asked the state’s highest court to delay the issuing of marriage licenses, while they appealed the decision. Fortunately, the court didn’t think the state has a “reasonable” likelihood of success on its appeal. Therefore, it’s not going to delay the marriages.
An interesting tidbit: according to the advocacy group Freedom to Marry, one-third of Americans live in a place that recognizes the right to marry a person of the same sex.
In similar news, Oregon state officials announced the state will recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages (even though the state itself does not allow those marriages). Hawaii and our home state of Illinois have bills pending that would legalize same-sex marriages. And there are pending court cases in several states including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
An exciting time for sure!