Same sex marriages upheld in New Jersey

Updated twice below:

Well, sure enough, the NJ Supreme Court awared equal treatment to same-sex couples.

HELD: Denying committed same-sex couples the financial and social benefits and privileges given to their married heterosexual counterparts bears no substantial relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose. The Court holds that under the equal protection guarantee of Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, committed samesex couples must be afforded on equal terms the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes. The name to be given to the statutory scheme that provides full rights and benefits to samesex couples, whether marriage or some other term, is a matter left to the democratic process.

I'm waiting for the chorus of angry rhetoric from the right about "activist judges" and the "homosexual" agenda of Nancy Pelosi and her San Francisco Democrats.

Update:

As I read the decision more carefully, I note one additional feature. As indicated above the Court did not uphold gay "marriage" per se, but only held that gay couples should enjoy the same benefits as married couples. The ruling also found that "even though same-sex couples are provided fewer benefits and rights by the Act, they are subject to more stringent requirements to enter into a domestic partnership than opposite-sex couples entering a marriage."

Consequently, the Court ordered the State to either amend the marriage laws or create an alternative route to domestic partnership within 180 days:

To bring the State into compliance with Article I, Paragraph 1 so that plaintiffs can exercise their full constitutional rights, the Legislature must either amend the marriage statutes or enact an appropriate statutory structure within 180 days of the date of this decision.

I'll be interested to see the scrambling that's going to take place to get this done within the Court's timeline. The fireworks are going to be pretty spectacular!

Update II:

The more I think about this, the more I suspect this may be the best result we could have expected -- at least in terms of its political impact. Since the Court did not actually require the State to legalize same sex "marriage," those on the right are going to have a much harder time convincing many Americans that this is a threat to traditional marriage. Sure, the extreme bigots will be upset, but I suspect most people will find this ruling rather uncontroversial.

I'm sure it doesn't give gays everything they want, but it certainly moves things in the right direction for them.

So, maybe this was the best possible outcome, given the Court's decision to publish its decision just before the elections.