Wednesday, October 25, 2006
No Clarity in NJ [Kellyanne Conway]
David Souter has company. Deborah Poritz, the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, also was appointed to that position by a Republican (then Governor Christine Todd Whitman) and also has governed as a liberal.
In her 10 years on the bench as chief, Poritz has issued her share of leftward opinions, most famously the one that allowed an eleventh hour switch where disgraced incumbent Bob Torricelli was replaced as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate by had-been Frank Lautenberg.
That is why hopeful Poritz watchers were expecting her to make history today, by leading the court toward recognition of same-sex marriages under the New Jersey constitution. Poritz is set to retire at midnight (unfortunately, Souter is not), her 70th birthday, and many assumed her swansong would be this salvo in a self-designated "progressive" state that recognized domestic partnerships in 2004.
The Court refused to specifically recognize marriage for same-sex couples, but said they are entitled to equal rights and benefits of married people, and that it can be called marriage or something else (civil unions). “The Court holds that under the equal protection guarantee of Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, committed same sex couples must be afforded on equal terms the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes. The name to be given to the statutory scheme that provides full rights and benefits to same sex couples, whether marriage or some other term, is a matter left to the democratic process."
The reaction from the Left is comical. According to PoliticsNJ.com, Assemblyman Richard Merk called the Supreme Court "clueless" and vowed to introduce legislation that would impeach the entire court. The head of Garden State Equality chastised the court, vowed to stop at nothing short of marriage and quite ironically said, "SO HELP US GOD, New Jersey’s LGBTI community and our millions of straight allies will settle for nothing less than 100 percent marriage equality"
These reactions misread how Joe Lunchbucket in this heavily unionized state views these issues, to say nothing of the people in the 19 states that have voted to protect traditional marriage, with more than 71%of the vote on average.
For those who wish the hotly contested U.S. Senate race in NJ were about more than "corruption," here's an idea: Menendez and Kean should be required to read, analyze and react to today's decision, opine clearly what should happen over the next 180 days as a result, and name their choices to succeed Poritz as Chief Justice.
10/25 04:58 PM
