New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and
NOM President Brian Brown released statements Friday stating their
disappointment with the New Jersey Supreme Court's unanimous decision
to allow gay and lesbian couples to begin marrying on Monday while a
case challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage proceeds.
The high court is scheduled to hear
oral arguments in the case in early January.
(Related: New
Jersey Supreme Court won't delay start of gay marriage.)
Michael Dewniak, a spokesman for
Christie, said that the governor will comply with the ruling.
“While the governor firmly believes
that this determination should be made by all the people of the State
of New Jersey, he has instructed the Department of Health to
cooperate with all municipalities in effectuating the order,”
Dewniak said in a statement.
Gay rights proponents cheered the news
but said that they would continue to push lawmakers to override
Christie's 2012 veto of a bill legalizing marriage for gay couples in
the state.
“Today the New Jersey Supreme Court
has stood on the side of equality and refused to delay the freedom to
marry,” Troy Stevenson, executive director of Garden State
Equality, said in an emailed statement. “We have been fighting an
uphill battle for the dignity of marriage for years and we are
finally within sight of the summit. However, this is not the time to
rest, it is the time to recommit, it is the time to pull out all the
stops. We have to continue to push because we are in the fight of
our lives. While we have faith in the courts, we can not control
what happens there. What we can do is demand that action be taken at
the state house. We will not rest until we guarantee the freedom to
marry to every New Jerseyan, and we are certain that it can never be
taken away.”
The National Organization for Marriage
(NOM), the nation's most vociferous opponent of marriage equality,
also criticized the ruling.
“It is extremely disappointing that
the New Jersey Supreme Court has allowed the ruling of an activist
judge to stand pending its appeal through the court system,” NOM
President Brian Brown wrote on the group's website. “The
definition of marriage is something that should be decided by the
people of New Jersey themselves, not by any judge or court. New
Jerseyans should have the right to vote on this issue just as voters
in nearly three dozen other states have done. In addition, the
decision to allow same-sex 'marriage' to proceed even while the law
is being tested in court is unfair both to the voters of the state
and to same-sex couples themselves. If the state Supreme Court were
to uphold marriage as they should do, then the validity of the
'marriages' that will be performed starting next week will be called
into question. Further, the decision opens the door to a possible
federal court ruling similar to what occurred in California in the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal which held that once a state grants
same-sex 'marriage' rights it can never take them away. All in all,
today's ruling is another sad chapter in watching our courts usurp
the rights of voters to determine issues like this for themselves.”
(Related: Cory
Booker plans to marry 10 gay couples on Monday.)