By now you will have seen the great news: all 7 Justices at the New Jersey Supreme Court (pictured above) agree that gays should have all the rights and benefits of marriage. However, the majority - 4 of the justices, deferred to the Legislature the decision on whether the gays are really equal (and we will have marriage) or if we are equal, but separate from the heteros (and we will have civil unions in NJ). Either way we are much better off with the New Jersey decision than with the decision from other "liberal" states, like New York and Washington.
The full decision is here.
I wanted to bring some attention to a citation of Dworkin by the minority concurring and dissenting. The minority of 3 concurred with the majority in that gays should have all the rights of marriage, and dissented in that they think, correctly, that gays should not only have the rights, but they should also have the title, marriage. The citation is on page 87 of the pdf.
Ronald Dworkin is the greatest American legal philosopher alive, and here's what he had to say about gay marriage on The New York Review of Books:
"Civil union status may provide many of the legal and material benefits of marriage, but it does not provide the social and personal meaning of that institution."
There are other problems with the term Civil Unions, but Dworkin's argument is awesome. I liked Dworkin before (I actually just lead a seminar on his ideas on my Ph.D.) but now he is the man. You should really head over to The New York Review of Books to read Dworkin's take on gay marriage.
Go New Jersey! Go Dworkin!
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