Late Thursday, New Jersey lawmakers obeyed an order from their state's high court, barely 7 weeks after hearing it.
N.J.'s state house and senate passed a civil unions bill in much less time than the N.J. supreme court had given them. And the legislature declined the court's invitation to give same-sex unions the formal name, "marriage."
The judicial order, in Lewis v. Harris, A68-05, Oct. 25, 2006, was expressly not a "gay marriage" ruling, as T.P.S.M. previously argued here.
In fact, the New Jersey Supreme Court split, four to three, over the word "marriage," with the dissenters (lead by the retiring, Republican, chief justice) arguing for same-sex marriage and against a two-tiered system, with queer unions second-best.
So today's question is, why so fast, N.J. legislature? The court gave you 180 days and very wide latitude, in a decision that (contrary to right-wing complaining) was quite deferential to the legislative branch. You took less than a third of the time allowed. Why?
Read the rest of the article at T.P.S.M.