ALBANY -- The American Civil Liberties Union today denounced the New York
Court
of Appeals decision upholding by a 4 to 2 vote a state law that
bars same-sex
couples from marriage and the hundreds of family
protections provided to married
couples.
“We are
disappointed by the court’s decision, but we will
continue to fight for
marriage protections for our family,” said Amy Tripi of
Highland, NY.
Tripi is raising a child with her partner of nine years, Jeanne
Vitale.
The court accepted the justifications advanced by Mayor Michael
Bloomberg and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for the state law barring
marriage
by same-sex couples. Pointing out that stable
relationships between
parents are important for children, that straight
couples can conceive children
by “accident,” and that gay couples can
only have children with advance
planning, Bloomberg and Spitzer argued
that straight couples need the stability
of marriage, but gay couples
do not.
Accepting an argument that was
rejected by the
Arkansas Supreme Court just last week when it struck down a
policy
barring gay people from serving as foster parents, the court also found
that the ban is justified because some people may think that children
do better
with a mother and a father. To reach this conclusion,
the court ignored
the advice of leading child health and welfare
organizations as well as decades
of social science research proving
that same-sex couples are as capable of being
good parents as straight
people and their children are equally well
adjusted.
“The majority of New Yorkers support marriage for
committed
same-sex couples. Today’s decision by the court is disheartening
given this state’s long history of tolerance and justice for gay and
lesbian
people and other minority groups,” said James Esseks,
Litigation Director of the
ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender
Project.
Chief Justice Kaye, joined by
Judge Ciparick, wrote a
dissenting opinion harshly criticizing the majority
opinion stating,
“This state has a proud tradition of affording equal rights to
all New
Yorkers. Sadly, the Court today retreats from that proud
tradition.” The dissent further stated, “I am confident that
future
generations will look back on today’s decision as an unfortunate
misstep.”
The ACLU, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the
law firm Paul, Weiss,
Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison, LLP brought a
challenge to the New York law on
behalf of same-sex couples from
throughout the state. The New York Court
of Appeals heard oral
arguments on May 31 in the ACLU case and three other cases
seeking
marriage for same-sex couples, including a case brought by Lambda Legal
on behalf of couples from New York City and separate cases brought by
couples
from Albany and Ithaca.
“The court has had its say, but
our efforts to end
discrimination against gay and lesbian couples will
continue,” said Donna
Lieberman, Executive Director of the New York
Civil Liberties Union. “It
is time for the legislature to
act.”
Among the plaintiff couples in
the ACLU lawsuit
were:
Cindy Bink and Ann Pachner of West Hurley, NY, who have been together for 18 years. Bink had to leave her job as a counselor at a community college in New Jersey, where she had worked for 17 years because the college did not offer domestic partner benefits. Forced to search for a job that would allow her to cover Pachner on her health insurance policy, she finally found a job working for the City of New York that provides health care for both of them.
Regina Cicchetti and Susan Zimmer, who live in Port Jervis, NY, recently celebrated their 35th anniversary. Cicchetti has survived two life-threatening illnesses – breast cancer and a pituitary tumor – and says that she could never have made it through these crises without Zimmer’s support. The couple wants the security of knowing no questions will be asked about their relationship should one of them be hospitalized in the future.
John Wessell and Billy O'Connor of New York City celebrated their 27th anniversary this year. Now nearing retirement, the couple worries that they would be barred from visiting each other in the hospital or kept out of conversations about emergency medical decisions. Although they have wills, they also worry that their wishes will not be respected when one of them passes away.
“Lesbian and gay couples make long-term commitments and establish loving,
supportive families,” said Roberta Kaplan of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton &
Garrison, LLP, who argued on behalf of the couples in the case. “There is simply
no good reason for the state to refuse to provide equal family protections and
equal status under the law to gay and lesbian New Yorkers. I am confident
that the courts and the legislature will come to recognize that offering the
protections of marriage to one class of citizens, while denying them to another,
is inconsistent with this state's core values and is
unconstitutional.”
Esseks and Sharon McGowan of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual
Transgender Project, Lieberman and Arthur Eisenberg of the NYCLU and
Kaplan and
Andrew Ehrlich of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and
Garrison, LLP were the legal
team representing the plaintiffs.
Biographical information on all of
the clients, the legal documents
and other background materials about Samuels
and Gallagher, et. al.
v. New York Department of Health are available at www.aclu.org/caseprofiles.