After New Jersey defeat, gay marriage advocates turn to courts
Hours after the New Jersey Senate voted against a bill Thursday to legalize same-sex marriage, a coalition of gay-rights advocates said they would make their case in the state’s Supreme Court.
With the nationwide campaign to legalize gay marriage suffering a series of setbacks in recent months – a ballot measure was defeated in Maine last November and a bill rejected by the New York Senate – many advocates see the courtroom as the most likely venue for opening marriage to gay and lesbian couples in the near term.
In San Francisco, a lawsuit in a federal court begins Monday that challenges the Constitutionality of Proposition 8, the 2008 voter-approved initiative that banned gay marriage in California. In US District Court in Boston, two lawsuits seek to overturn the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which limits the government’s definition of marriage to a union between a man and woman.
