A Brief History of Marriage Equality in New Jersey. The following was printed in the February 2010 issue of Challenge.

It all began with a lawsuit. Lewis v. Harris was argued before the New Jersey Supreme Court in February 2006. Seven same-sex couples sued the state for the right to enter into civil marriages. In October 2006, the Court handed down two decisions. The first, which was a unanimous decision, stated that equal protection had to be granted to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples. The second, decided on a 4-3 vote, left the manner in which such protection was to be granted up to the Legislature.

The Legislature created a law granting civil unions to same-sex couples in December 2006. The law also set up an appointed civil union review commission, charged with examining the law to see if it was working. In 2008, the commission presented a report unanimously stating that civil unions had failed to provide equal protection to same-sex couples, and recommending the Legislature legalize civil marriages for same-sex couples.

Legislation to grant the right of civil marriage to same-sex couples (the Freedom of Religion and Equality in Civil Marriage Act) was introduced in 2008 by Loretta Weinberg and Raymond Lesniak in the Senate and Reed Gusciora and Valeria Vainieri Huttle in the Assembly. The major lobbying groups involved were Garden State Equality (GSE) in favor of the bill and the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and the New Jersey Catholic Conference (the lobbying arm of the state's Catholic bishops) against the bill.

Reportedly, the Democratic Party in New Jersey decided not to take action on the bill during the Presidential election year of 2008 in order not to have marriage equality be a campaign issue. In early 2009 - an election year for both the governorship and the entire Assembly - Governor Jon Corzine, during a speech at a GSE fundraising dinner, stated publicly that he would sign a marriage equality bill if it came to his desk.

There is some dispute over another statement made privately by Corzine to the state's GLBT leadership. Corzine is said to have reached an agreement with the GLBT leadership where they would not push for marriage equality until after the November elections, so as not to make it an issue when the campaign's focus was to be on the economy. In return, the marriage equality bill would be passed during the "lame duck" session of the Legislature. In an article in the Star-Ledger, Steven Goldstein, head of GSE, was quoted as saying that by 2009, the GLBT leadership "had no choice," and that "[t]he party never gave us a choice" in terms of waiting until the lame-duck session for the bill to be considered.

The marriage equality bill initially faced four challenges: a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee; a vote in the Assembly Judiciary Committee; a vote of the full Senate; and a vote in the full Assembly. The Senate Judiciary Committee vote came first, on December 7^th; the bill passed on a 7-6 vote, with Republican Senator Bill Baroni voting for the bill and Democratic Senators Paul Sarlo and John Girgenti voting against it.

The next vote was expected to be in the full Senate, on December 10^th. However, the bill's sponsors requested and got a postponement of that vote until after the Assembly Judiciary Committee could meet and vote on it. The Speaker of the Assembly, Joseph Roberts Jr., decided that the testimony heard before the Senate Judiciary Committee was sufficient for the Assembly to decide on the bill and so would not schedule a hearing of the Assembly Committee. However, Roberts had stated before that the full Assembly would not vote on the bill until after the full Senate had voted on it.

The Senate vote was scheduled for January 7^th,with various Senators speaking for and against the bill on the Senate floor. When the time came, 14 Senators voted in favor (13 Democrats and 1 Republican), 20 Senators voted against (14 Republicans and 6 Democrats), two Republican Senators were absent, and three Democratic Senators did not cast a vote.

At the post-vote event, held at the Trenton Marriott, Steven Goldstein announced that GSE, assisted by a team from Lambda Legal, would be taking the fight for marriage equality back to the state Supreme Court. The argument will be that the Court's mandate from 2006 - to provide equal protection for same-sex and opposite-sex couples - had not been met by the civil union law; that Senators on both sides of the question have stated that the current civil union law does not work; and that the only way to meet the Court's mandate is by granting same-sex couples the right to obtain civil marriages.

There have also been several groups being formed to remove Senators who voted against marriage equality. Of the two most active groups to date, one is targeting Senators Sean Kean and Jennifer Beck, while the other is targeting the nine Democratic Senators who either voted 'no' or abstained from voting.