Court Strikes Down Ruling To Allow Same-Sex Marriage
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

A state appeals court struck down a ruling yesterday that would have allowed same-sex marriage in the city, but the attorney representing the five gay couples who filed the suit has already vowed to appeal. In making the ruling, the state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division sided with the city, which was arguing that the state constitution does not permit same-sex marriage.
The case has put Mayor Bloomberg in an awkward political position. In February, Mr. Bloomberg came out in favor of same-sex marriage, but at the same time ordered city lawyers to argue against it in court because it violated the state’s constitution. He reasoned that a court battle was needed before the city could start permitting the marriages because of the risk of a future legal decision annulling those nuptials. That’s what happened in San Francisco after the city married thousands of gay couples.
Yesterday the mayor issued a statement reiterating that position and pledging to lobby Albany lawmakers if the state Court of Appeals, which could hear the case, rules that same-sex marriage is not legal. “If today’s decision is affirmed by the Court of Appeals, I will urge the Legislature to change the State’s Domestic Relations Law to permit gay marriage,” Mr. Bloomberg said.
The executive director of the gay rights group, the Empire State Pride Agenda, Alan Van Capelle, said in a statement that he was “disappointed, but not surprised” by yesterday’s ruling and said the state constitution “guarantees equal treatment for all New Yorkers.”
“We should not be denied the literally hundreds of rights and protections that state provides married couples and their families,” Mr. Van Capelle said.
Mr. Bloomberg was criticized in February after the city filed legal briefings in a lower court using language that some gay activists viewed as too aggressive and as inconsistent with his declared support of gay marriage.
Yesterday some said the city had toned down its language. A senior counsel for the gay rights group that argued the latest case, Lambda Legal said the city did alter some of its language but that it still made some “ill-chosen” arguments. The lawyer, Susan Sommer, told The New York Sun that Lambda would appeal yesterday’s decision. The case was initiated by five gay couples who sued after the city refused to grant them marriage licenses.