New Jersey Supreme Court Rules that Same Sex Couples Entitled to Same Rights as Married Couples
On October 25, 2006, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that New Jersey must extend all the rights of marriage to gay couples. But the Supreme Court justices left it to the New Jersey legislature to decide whether to provide those rights in the form of marriages, civil unions or something else — and gave the Legislature 180 days to reach a decision. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruling is similar to the 1999 high-court ruling in Vermont that led that state to create civil unions, which confer all of the rights and benefits available to married couples under state law. "Although we cannot find that a fundamental right to same-sex marriage exists in this state, the unequal dispensation of rights and benefits to committed same-sex partners can no longer be tolerated under our state Constitution," New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Barry T. Albin wrote for New Jersey's four-member majority. The court said the Legislature "must either amend the marriage sta