New York Legalizes Gay Marriage?

Rath said:
To be clear, this isn't New York doing it. It's a COURT in New York doing it. There's NO New York legislation permitting it.

Frenchy said:
Mariage: the union between two loving HUMAN BEING.

It shouldn't be more complicated than that... sorry!

HenryTMensch said:

To be clear, Courts in NY get to say what the state constitution means and Courts are part of the government of New York. Courts make new law all the time in common law jurisdictions... it's been going on for centuries, even if Bush says "activist judges legislatiing from the bench" with a sneer and a wink to Justice Breyer during the state of the union, as if legislating from the bench is some new dangerous development.

Rath said:

Right. But this is ONE lower court judge. Her ruling is effective ONLY in one borough of one city in the state. And she stayed her ruling to give the government time to appeal, so it doesn't even have any effect in the one borough of the one city it covers.

Even if the intermediate appellate court upholds this lower court's ruling, the appellate court's ruling will only be effective in one quarter of the state. The remaining three-quarters of the state will still be where they are now.

You can't say that New York has "legalized" gay marriage until the highest appellate court -- the Court of Appeals, whose rulings govern state-wide -- rules on the issue and says it's unconstitutional to make it illegal.

And even then, as a matter of semantics, I think it would be inaccurate to say that "New York" "legalized" gay marriage. More like the New York Court of Appeals said it can't be illegal. Again, don't give credit where it isn't due.

[Edited on Feb 05, 2005 by Rath]

Frenchy said:
Mariage: the union between two loving HUMAN BEING.

It shouldn't be more complicated than that... sorry!

Main Entry: mar·riage
Pronunciation: 'mar-ij
Function: noun
1 : the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a legal, consensual, and contractual relationship recognized and sanctioned by and dissolvable only by law —see also DIVORCE
2 : the ceremony containing certain legal formalities by which a marriage relationship is created

plasticfangs said:
Someimes I think that the two US coasts should get together and annex themselves away from the rest of the US. We could call it "Liberalania", or "Cool, Open-MInded Land", or soemthing. But yeah. Go NY!

kekaha said:

Yet my dictionary says

OK, now I sound like thewomb, so to lighten it up I will ask, are you using a special Gay Dictionary?
Ironically, the one I used is American Heritage

HenryTMensch said:

Not to single you out or anything, but why do people imagine that dictionary definitions somehow are decisive or even persuasive in arguments like this. Dictionary definitions change all the time. The only reason things like this should get posted is when someone really just has the definition completely wrong -- e.g. imagining that "marriage" means "a small potted cactus" -- rather than when people are fighting over the edges of the definition.

And I get that you are being slightly facetious with the dictionary quoting, but I figured I'd seize the opportunity to point out that this tactic is teh geigh.

iHvPuNmyShu said:
there were times when CERTAIN MINORITIES werent aloud to vote
there were times when CERTAIN MINORITIES werent aloud to go the school of their choose'n
there were times when CERTAIN MINORITIES werent aloud to eat/drink/even sit with people not of their own minority
there were times when CERTAIN MINORITIES werent aloud to marry...

plasticfangs said:
Someimes I think that the two US coasts should get together and annex themselves away from the rest of the US. We could call it "Liberalania", or "Cool, Open-MInded Land", or soemthing. But yeah. Go NY!

Vanessa said:
fuck.
I'm moving to New York.

member=HenryTMensch]:
Dictionary definitions change all the time, etc...And I get that you are being slightly facetious with the dictionary quoting, but I figured I'd seize the opportunity to point out that this tactic is teh geigh.

kekaha said:

You're right, I was being facetious, and I don't feel singled out or under attack.
But pointing that out was like so gay

HenryTMensch said:

GUILTY AS CHARGED. Don't tell my wife. Or any of the SGs. Fuck! Oops!

thejuanupsman said:

heh, the coasts always think they have the liberal thing monopolized. As the only state to vote Democrat for every presidential election in the last 28 years, and the state to produce some of the most liberal U.S senators (Humphrey, Wellstone) this country has ever seen, I think Minnesota should be part of any liberal defection/annexation.