Public Defense

Gay marriage legal in CA; what will CT do?

By Gideon

Yesterday, California’s Supreme Court issued an historic 4-3 ruling [pdf] overturning that State’s statutory ban on gay marriages. Glenn Greenwald at Salon has a terrific analysis of the ruling here. It is critical to note that this argument was made pursuant to the California Constitution, not the U.S. Constitution.

As noted in a footnote in that decision, the Connecticut Supreme Court is considering an identical issue in Kerrigan v. Comm’r of Public Health. That case was argued before the Justices one year and two days ago. Re-reading my posts on the oral argument, it seems to me that the most likely outcome is that the Court will punt the case back to the legislature. The days of the CT Supreme Court being on the forefront of progressive jurisprudence seem to be long gone.

While the year and two day delay seems lengthy (compare that to CA, where they issued their opinion in two months), it is not the longest delay I’ve seen from the Court. Further, with May being the last term of the Court, it is very likely that if we do not get a decision from them by the end of July, we won’t see one till September or October.

Anyway, this decision by the CA Court is truly a landmark decision, making California only one of two States in the country to recognize same-sex marriages (MA being the other). It is a good day for equality when a Court sees the “civil union” argument as nothing but more of the “separate but equal” travesty.

Tags: same+sex+marriages, california+supreme+court

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Full post as published by A Public Defender on May 16, 2008 (boomark / email).