TRENTON, N.J. – In response to the plaintiff’s request for reconsideration, a New Jersey Superior Court has reinstated the federal equal protection claim in a Lambda Legal case seeking marriage equality on behalf of Garden State Equality and seven same-sex couples and their children harmed by the state’s unequal civil union system. Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s largest LGBT civil rights organization, with more than 89,000 members, is an organizational plaintiff in the case.
“We are pleased that the New Jersey Superior Court will allow us to show how civil unions fail to provide to same-sex couples the equality promised by both the New Jersey Constitution and the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” said Jon Davidson, legal director at Lambda Legal. “Having both a state and federal equal protection claim will only make our case stronger. We look forward to presenting a complete record of the discrimination that New Jersey’s same-sex couples and their children face because of their relegation to civil unions rather than marriage.”
“Civil union consigns New Jersey’s same-sex couples to second-class status and it continues to harm families. New Jersey’s exclusion interferes during medical crises, leads to the denial of health insurance and contributes to discrimination even in funeral homes. These families need marriage equality and should not have to live with a law that treats them as inferior,” Davidson continued.
“We are gaining momentum in New Jersey and there is no turning back,” said Steven Goldstein, chair and CEO of Garden State Equality, the statewide LGBT equality group and lead plaintiff in the case. “The majority of voters are in favor of marriage equality, the legislature is in favor of marriage equality – and now we intend to show that both the state and federal constitutions bar the second class treatment New Jersey is now providing.”
Last June, Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit for marriage equality arguing that barring same-sex couples from marriage and relegating them to civil union violates the constitutional rights of those couples and their children.
