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New Jersey Superior Court, Mercer County/Amicus
Ed Barocas/ACLU-NJ
In this case, seven same-sex couples sued for the right to marry, claiming the denial of the right to marry for same-sex couples violates their right to equal protection and privacy under the New Jersey Constitution.
The ACLU-NJ, representing numerous minority rights organizations including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Hispanic Bar Association, and National Organization for Women of New Jersey, submitted a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the seven same-sex couples. The ACLU-NJ brief explained that (1) constitutional rights of minorities cannot be put up for majority vote and instead must be protected by the courts; and (2) a constitutional right cannot be parsed so as to exclude a particular minority from its protection. The ACLU-NJ's brief countered the state's argument that the rights afforded to same-sex couples should be left up to a majority vote of the Legislature and that the constitutional right to marriage does not include a right to same-sex marriage. The ACLU-NJ set forth that, under constitutional analysis, a privacy right is defined by the area of decision-making (here, the choice of a particular marital partner) and not by the characteristics of the person making that choice. As such, the state can no more parse out the right to same-sex marriage as it could the right to interracial marriage or interfaith marriage.
In October 2006, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that denying same-sex couples the rights and privileges of marriage violates the state constitution's equal protection clause. However, in a 4-to-3 decision, the court held that the state could provide a parallel statutory structure and title for those rights (e.g., "civil unions" as opposed to "marriage").
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