By Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron
NJ Today
At a Statehouse press conference on Friday’s same-sex marriage decision, Senate Democratic leaders asked the state’s highest court to take up the issue immediately and decide it in three weeks.
“We’re calling on the Supreme Court today to take this issue up now. They can, they should and people should be able to know by Oct. 21, yes or no,” said Senate President Steve Sweeney.
Oct. 21 was the date set by Judge Mary Jacobson of Mercer County Superior Court, after which gay couples must be allowed to marry in New Jersey.
Gov. Chris Christie is seeking an appeal.
The Democrats say he should withdraw it because the Supreme Court is virtually certain to uphold Judge Jacobson, given how the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June and how the state Supreme Court ruled years ago.
“The governor is a trained attorney. He knows there is no way he can win this appeal. There is no logic behind it. So he should stop wasting taxpayer money and drop it,” said Sen. Loretta Weinberg.
On a separate track, the legislature could override the governor’s veto of a same-sex marriage bill that passed. But that takes a two-thirds majority in each house and Sweeney suggested the votes aren’t there yet, although he vowed to override the veto eventually regardless of what the courts decide.
Marsha Shapiro and Louise Walpin of South Brunswick are one of the couples that sued the state, arguing civil unions, legalized years ago, have failed gay couples.
“They even failed us when we were planning the funeral for our youngest son who passed away in 2008 and we had to suffer the indignity of explaining to the funeral director what a civil union was when Marsha introduced me as a civil union partner,” Walpin said.
They, too, had a message for the governor.
“Any kind of appeal at this time is only mean-spirited and can hurt families. There’s no reason for it,” Shapiro said.
Republican legislators we spoke to today preferred not to comment on Friday’s ruling.
But an advocate for traditional marriage echoed Christie’s call to put the question on the ballot.
“We think it should be eventually resolved as the governor has said, by a vote of the public. We wish the legislature had moved in that direction and allowed a constitutional amendment to come up,” said John Tomicki of the New Jersey Coalition to Preserve and Protect Marriage.
The Democrats’ reply? The civil rights of a minority should not be decided by the majority.