Submitted by Kevin Churchill, Nov 1, 2006 08:52

The Sun and perhaps many others, wonder why the NJ Supreme Court ruled when they did, the answer is very simple and very bad.

The NJSC ruled on Gay Marriage just days before the Nov 7th election because its chief justice, Deborah Poritz retired the very next day. This is a extreme liberal judge that even the liberal professor Laurence Tribe of Harvard University criticized as "irresponsible". In 2002, Chief Justice Deborah Poritz authored an opinion ordering the Legislature to pay the full cost of preschools for 3- and 4-year-olds. She quoted the educatuion clause of the NJ Constitution but left out the crucial words "between the ages of five and eighteen years." because these words in the Constitution didn't fit her opinion. Then a few months later, in an opinion that permitted the state to bond for billions without voter approval, she quoted the debt-limitation clause, which reads: "The Legislature shall not in any manner create in any fiscal year a debt or debts ... ." The words "in any manner" contradicted her opinion. So she left them out.

During her tenure, New Jersey's Supreme Court wrote many ridiculuous and legally-speaking very poor decisions. Where and when the Poritz Court wanted to write law, it did. Disregarding a Court's obligation to only interpret law.

In the NJSC ruling on Gay Marriage, the Court ordered the state's legislature to write a law in one of two ways to satisfy the Court's liberal agenda because "Times are changing..." At least they will be changing without Poritz making law....

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