The Alliance

by Elizabeth Stull (court@brooklyneagle.net), published  07-30-2004

At the same time, debates over the legal status of homosexual unions continue in state courtrooms, legislatures, and public forums across the nation.

The Gay/Straight Alliance of the New York State Courts and the Lesbian and Gay Law Association of Greater New York (LeGal) last month co-sponsored a panel discussion of "Same-Sex Marriage: The Role of the Courts in Civil Rights and Social Change."

It was standing room only in Brooklyn Borough Hall’s ceremonial courtroom, where people came from all over the city and downstate area to hear about New York State’s marriage laws, and pending litigation intended to prove they are gender neutral.

Panelists included attorneys Norman Siegel and Susan Sommer, as well as two mayors who became embroiled in lawsuits this year.

"My hope is that some day soon, Mayors and officials in villages and towns across the country will be able to perform marriage ceremonies for all committed couples, no matter their gender," said Mayor John West, of the Village of New Paltz.

Mayor West married 25 same-sex couples one day last winter. He was charged with 19 misdemeanor counts of solemnizing a marriage without a license. Several days after the June panel discussion, New Paltz Town Court Justice Jonathan Katz found that the state failed to show it has a legitimate interest in banning same-sex weddings, and that prosecutors failed to prove the law that West allegedly violated was constitutional. Prosecutors planned to appeal.

Mayor John Shields, of Nyack, sued the State of New York in March 2004 when he and his life partner, along with nine other same-sex couples, were denied marriage licenses by the Orangetown Clerk. Mayor Shields’ case is still pending in the courts.

Attorney Norman Siegel represents Mayor Shields and the rest of "The Nyack 10" in Shields v. New York.

They seek injunctive relief in the form of court orders requiring the Clerk to grant the licenses and the Department of Health to recognize as valid marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples.

"We maintain that New York State’s marriage law is gender neutral, and consequently allows for same-sex marriage," Siegel said.

Siegel also argues that the application of New York’s marriage law to bar same-sex marriage denies equal protection of the law under the state constitution on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender. Finally, he says the application of New York’s marriage law to bar same-sex marriage denies due process — the right to privacy under New York State Constitution.

The plaintiffs filed papers in March. The state Attorney General and town clerk filed response papers on June 4, and the plaintiffs submitted a 49-page response in mid-June. The case was before Justice Alfred Weiner.

Siegel’s case may benefit from New Paltz Town Justice Judith Reichler’s recent decision to throw out the charges against two Unitarian ministers charged with solemnizing the marriages of 13 same-sex couples in March.