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Bush on Lewis

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President Bush said today:

“Yesterday in New Jersey, we had another activist court issue a ruling that raises doubts about the institution of marriage. I believe that marriage is a union between a man and a woman.”

But remember, the court didn’t order the legislature to create gay marriage. It said that the state constitution requires equal rights for gay couples, and it will let the legislature decide whether this will come in the form of marriage or of civil unions.

And remember, as I noted yesterday, that President Bush has stated that he doesn’t oppose civil unions. “I don’t think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that’s what a state chooses to do so,” he said shortly before the 2004 elections. He also said, “I strongly believe that marriage ought to be defined as between a union between a man and a woman. Now, having said that, states ought to be able to have the right to pass laws that enable people to be able to have rights like others.” (Emphasis added.)

So: the New Jersey Supreme Court did not order the legislature to create gay marriage. If the legislature decides to create civil unions, Bush would presumably not have a problem with that. But if the legislature goes the extra step and creates marriage for gays, that would be entirely the legislature’s choice; the court would not be imposing it.

Therefore, Bush is wrong. The court did not “raise doubts about the institution of marriage.” It mandated no more than civil unions, something the president has already stated he supports.

So Bush is a flip-flopper.

But let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. The only interpretation that would show consistency in Bush’s statements is that he believes civil unions should be entirely a choice of the legislature and that courts should stay out of it. But it’s a court’s job to interpret the constitution; that’s the principle of judicial review, a principle that goes back to the founding of our nation. And when the constitional principle of equal protection is combined with New Jersey’s longstanding Law Against Discrimination that bars differential treatment based on sexual orientation, equal rights for gay couples is obvious. The members of the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously agreed on this. It was entirely within the court’s purview to order equal rights.

Bush is just plain wrong.

(Big surprise.)

GSE Press Release

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Press release from Garden State Equality:

Those who would view today’s Supreme Court ruling as a victory for same-sex couples are dead wrong. So help us God, New Jersey’s LGBTI community and our millions of straight allies will settle for nothing less than 100% marriage equality. Let decision makers from Morristown to Moorestown, from Maplewood to Maple Shade, recognize that fundamental fact right now.

So today, without missing a beat, Garden State Equality announces that Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo, the Assembly Speaker Pro Tem, joined by Assemblyman Brian Stack and Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, will introduce marriage-equality legislation. Thousands of us will now hit the streets, the phones and the hallways to get this legislation passed.

As the late Lt. Laurel Hester and too many other cases across New Jersey have shown, half-steps short of marriage — like New Jersey’s domestic-partnership law and also civil union laws — don’t work in the real world. Hospitals and other employers have told domestic-partnered couples across New Jersey: We don’t care what the domestic partnership law says. You’re not married.

That’s why it wouldn’t matter if the legislature added all the rights in the world to the current law without calling it marriage. Marriage is the only currency of commitment the real world universally understands and accepts.

We’re not seeking marriage merely for some moral, ethereal victory. We’re seeking marriage because New Jersey has proven that marriage is the only way a gay civil rights law will ever work in the real world…

As you’ve seen from Garden State Equality’s hundreds of events and thousands of e-mails over the past few years — a breathless pace of activity that’s not going to abate, so help us God — we never give up and we never give in to those who tell us no.

Hell no. Over our dead bodies will we settle for less than 100% marriage equality. The people of New Jersey wouldn’t want us to. According to the 2006 Zogby-Garden State Equality Poll, New Jersey favors marriage equality by 56% to 39%. Every other recent poll in New Jersey also shows a majority of voters favor marriage equality.

Don’t count gay marriage out in New Jersey. Its supporters are going to fight, and fight hard.