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Same-sex marriage in New Jersey

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Part of the LGBT rights series
Marriage

Recognized

Civil unions or registered partnerships but not marriage
Minimal recognition
See also
Notes
  1. ^ a b Performed in the Netherlands proper (including the Caribbean Netherlands), as well as in Aruba and Curaçao. May be registered in Sint Maarten in such cases, but the rights of marriage are not guaranteed.
  2. ^ Neither performed nor recognized in Niue, Tokelau, or the Cook Islands.
  3. ^ Neither performed nor recognized in six British Overseas Territories.
  4. ^ a b Neither performed nor recognized in some tribal nations. Recognized but not performed in several other tribal nations and American Samoa.
  5. ^ Registered foreign marriages confer all marriage rights. Domestic common-law marriages confer most rights of marriage. Domestic civil marriage recognized by some cities.
  6. ^ a b c d e The Coman v. Romania ruling of the European Court of Justice obliges the state to provide residency rights for the foreign spouses of EU citizens. Some member states, including Romania, do not follow the ruling.
  7. ^ A "declaration of family relationship" is available in several of Cambodia's communes which may be useful in matters such as housing, but is not legally binding.
  8. ^ Guardianship agreements, conferring some limited legal benefits, including decisions about medical and personal care.
  9. ^ Inheritance, guardianship rights, and residency rights for foreign spouses of legal residents.
  10. ^ Courts have recognised guru–shishya, nata pratha or maitri karar–type contractual relationships, but they are not legally binding.
  11. ^ Some cities and prefectures issue partnership certificates, but they are not legally binding.
  12. ^ Marriages conducted abroad between a Namibian national and a foreign spouse recognized for residency rights.
  13. ^ Hospital visitation rights through a "legal representative" status.
  1. ^ a b Not yet in effect.
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New Jersey has legislated for both domestic partnerships and civil unions, and recognizes out-of-state same-sex marriages as equivalent to civil unions conducted in the state. According to the state attorney-general, civil unions conducted in the Garden State have "substantially all of the rights and benefits of marriages," conducted in New Jersey. [1]

Civil Unions

Lewis v. Harris

Main article: Lewis v. Harris

On October 25, 2006, the Supreme Court of New Jersey unanimously ruled in Lewis v. Harris that the "unequal dispensation of rights and benefits to committed same-sex partners can no longer be tolerated under our State Constitution." With the Harris decision, gay couples were granted the same rights, benefits and responsibilities as heterosexual couples with respect to their relationships.

While the decision was widely reported as a 4-3 split, the differences between the Justices on the Court were on whether only the provision of marriage rights to same-sex couples would resolve the constitutional defect, or whether another statutory scheme would pass constitutional scrutiny. The Court avoided the question of what to call the legal status, leaving that to, as the majority stated, the "crucible of the democratic process."

The dissent, led by then-Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz, chastised the junior members of the Court who said that anything other than marriage would provide equal rights: "What we name things matters, language matters...Labels set people apart surely as physical separation on a bus or in school facilities...By excluding same-sex couples from civil marriage, the State declares that it is legitimate to differentiate between their commitments and the commitments of heterosexual couples. Ultimately the message is that what same-sex couples have is not as important or as significant as "real" marriage, that such lesser relationships cannot have the name of marriage."

The court gave the state legislature six months to enact legislation providing for civil unions.

Civil Union Act

On December 14, 2006, the New Jersey Legislature passed a bill providing for civil unions[2] which was signed into law by the Governor Jon Corzine on December 21, 2006. The Civil Union Act came into effect on February 19, 2007.

Same-sex couples who enter into a civil union are provided almost all of the rights granted to married couples under New Jersey state law. However, under the provisions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act or DOMA, same-sex couples in marriages, civil unions, or domestic partnerships do not have any right or entitlement to the 1,138 rights that a married couple has under federal law.[3].

The law provides[2] for the creation of a Civil Unions Review Commission that will evaluate the law's effectiveness and any problems resulting therefrom, and will report every six months for three years following enactment to assess the impact of the law. The first meeting of the Civil Unions Review Commission took place on June 18, 2007. The Commission elected a chair, Frank Vespa-Papaleo, the current Director of the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights, and the Commission plans on meeting monthly as well as conducting periodic public meetings.

According to the new civil union law,[2] when a same-sex couple receives a civil union, their domestic partnership is automatically terminated by the civil union. However, those couples who remain in domestic partnerships and elect to not enter into a civil union will be allowed to remain as domestic partners.

Criticisms

The New Jersey State Bar Association took a formal position against the adoption of Civil Unions law, citing inherent and obvious problems and confusion the law has for the state's citizens and the legal representation. In addition, the NJSBA formally endorsed the marriage bill proposed by openly gay Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, saying that only marriage equality would meet the standard mandated by the NJ Supreme Court in its Lewis decision.

In addition, newspapers have also covered the apparent failure of the civil union law, once it became effective on February 19, 2007, to provide equal protection consistently to same-sex couples in New Jersey. The New York Times, the Star-Ledger and the Bergen Record have each done investigative stories on employers and insurers failing to provide benefits to civil unioned couples.

During the first 90 days of the law, 852 same-sex couples had gotten civil-unioned, according to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. During the same 90 days, the LGBT civil rights organization Garden State Equality reported that it has received alleged complaints from 102 couples denied benefits by employers or insurers.

On May 22, 2007, the Star-Ledger reported that the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights has received at least 270 inquiries from civil-unioned couples denied benefits by employers or insurers. As of June 18, 2007, however, only 2 complaints had actually been filed with the NJ Division of Civil Rights, it was reported at the first meeting of the Civil Unions Review Commission.

Denial of benefits by employers

According to the LGBT civil rights organization Garden State Equality, by the end of July 2007, 211 of the 1,358 couples (1 out of 7) who had entered New Jersey civil unions since February 19 had "reported to Garden State Equality that their employers refused to recognize their civil unions." [4] Among the companies flouting state law were shipping companies United Parcel Service, Federal Express, and DHL, as well as a number of Fortune 500 companies.

UPS spokesman Norman Black had claimed that the company's collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters union, representing about 8,700 UPS employees in New Jersey, stood in the way of extending benefits to same-sex partners: "the company's current union contract specifies that the benefits can only be extended to "'spouses,'" but that New Jersey's civil unions law doesn't specifically call civil union partners "'spouses.'" [5]

On July 20, 2007, Governor Jon S. Corzine sent a letter to UPS officials on behalf of a UPS driver and her partner, asking the company to comply with New Jersey law and extend spousal benefits such as health insurance to civil union partners. On July 30, Allen Hill, UPS's senior vice president for human resources, announced, "We have received clear guidance that, at least in New Jersey, the state truly views civil union partners as married. We've heard that loud and clear from state officials and we're happy to make this change." [6]

The company also noted that it already offers equality of benefits to married same-sex couples in Massachusetts, and would review its policies in Connecticut and Vermont, which also offer civil unions.

Domestic Partnerships

The New Jersey Legislature enacted the Domestic Partnership Act, P.L.2003, c. 246, on January 12, 2004, which came into effect on July 10, 2004. The law made domestic partnerships available to all same-sex couples, as well as to different-sex couples aged 62 and older. The domestic partnership statute provides "limited healthcare, inheritance, property rights and other rights and obligations" but "[does] not approach the broad array of rights and obligations afforded to married couples." [1] For example, as Lambda Legal states, the law "required health and pension benefits [only] for state employees — it was voluntary for other employers — and did not require family leave to care for an ill partner."[7]

The domestic partnership statute remains in place even though New Jersey has since enacted a civil union statute. Couples in an existing domestic partnership are not required to enter a civil union. However, new domestic partnerships are available only to couples in which both partners are 62 and over, whether same-sex or different-sex.[1][7]

Recognition of out-of-state relationships

On February 16, 2007, Stuart Rabner, then the Attorney General of New Jersey, issued a Formal Opinion [1] to the state registrar of vital statistics, containing guidelines for recognizing same-sex relationships contracted out of state. Those that "provide substantially all the rights and benefits of marriage," are to be treated as civil unions in New Jersey. The attorney general named the following as specific equivalents to New Jersey civil unions:

In addition, the attorney general stated that same-sex marriages contracted in the following jurisdictions are to be treated as New Jersey civil unions also:

(Presumably, same-sex marriage in California, as authorized by the Marriage Cases ruling after 17 June, 2008, will also be treated as civil unions in New Jersey.)

However, the attorney general named the following same-sex relationships, which "provide notably fewer rights" than marriage, to be treated as domestic partnerships under New Jersey law:

The attorney general further stated that other "government-sanctioned same-sex relationships offered by foreign nations" besides those named in this Formal Opinion "are valid" as either domestic partnerships or civil unions in New Jersey, depending on which one they "more closely approximate." [1]

Public opinion

Same-Sex Marriage in New Jersey
Polling Firm Month Link Favor Oppose
Zogby International August 2007 [1] 48.1 44.6
Rutgers-Eagleton June 2006 PDF 49 44
Zogby International February 2006 [2] 56 39
Zogby International April 2005 HTML 54.5 40.1
Rutgers-Eagleton September 2003 PDF 43 50
Zogby International July 2003 [3] 55 41
  • A poll conducted in June 2006 showed the majority of New Jerseyans favored a law legalizing civil unions, with 66% in favor and 29% opposed. [8]
  • A Zogby International Poll, conducted in February 2006 and commissioned by Garden State Equality, found 56% of the State support a change in the marriage law that would allows same-sex couples the right to marry. 39% would oppose the change. By a 67%-28% margin, New Jersey voters say they oppose the idea of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and want the legislature to accept the decision of the Supreme Court. By a 77%-20% margin, New Jersey voters also say the legislature has better priorities than to try to amend the constitution to bar gay marriage.
  • Another Zogby International poll, conducted in April 2005, also commissioned by Garden State Equality, found 54.5% of New Jerseyans favored same-sex marriage. 40.1% disagreed, with 5.4% not yet having an opinion. When asked if those who were legally married outside of the State, 57.5% felt the marriages should be recognized, 37.2% thought the State shouldn't recognize them, and 5.3% weren't sure. [9]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Rabner, Stuart (2007-02-17). "Formal Opinion" (PDF). Attorney General. New Jersey. Retrieved 2007-07-24. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ a b c "New Jersey Public Law 2006, c.103" (PDF). New Jersey Legislature. 2006. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
  3. ^ "Defense of Marriage Act: Update to Prior Report, Letter to Senator Bill Frist" (PDF). General Accounting Office. United States. 2004-01-23. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  4. ^ http://www.politicsnj.com/ups-caves-fed-ex-dhl-and-scores-other-companies-continue-flaunt-new-jerseys-civil-unions-law-10618 "As UPS caves in, Fed Ex, DHL and scores of other companies continue to flaunt New Jersey's civil unions law," PoliticsNJ.com, 7/30/07
  5. ^ http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070721/NEWS03/707210342/1007 "Corzine urges UPS to honor civil unions," Asbury Park Press, 7/21/07
  6. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-30-ups-civil-unions_N.htm "UPS changes policy, gives benefits to partners of gay N.J. workers," USA Today, 7/31/07
  7. ^ a b "Civil Unions for Same-sex Couples in New Jersey" (PDF). lambdalegal.org. Lambda Legal. 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-31. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ Poll Results
  9. ^ Many Back Same-Sex Marriage In New Jersey
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