TRENTON -- In the case of Lewis v. Harris, in an awkward and contradictory opinion, the Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny the protections of a marriage license, though not the license itself to same-sex couples.  On a bright note, the court was unanimous in its understanding of the importance of marital protections for all New Jersey families.  However, the court was divided 4-3 as to whether the legislature needed to allow same-sex couples access to the same legal institution -- civil marriage -- as heterosexual couples, paving the way for the legislature to enact either civil marriage or civil unions in the next 180 days.

"At this point, the Court does not consider whether committed same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, but only whether those couples are entitled to the same rights and benefits afforded to married heterosexual couples," according to the decision.

"If the true intent is to give all benefits to same-sex couples, then what is the point of calling it civil unions if not to cast a separate and negative class for LGBT couples?" asked Executive Director Dan Furmansky.  "This day will be remembered in history as one where a court of law granted some protections to same-sex headed families, but denied these families true equality and dignity under the law."

With impending actions by the New Jersey legislature, the state will either join Massachusetts as the second state in the U.S. to allow same-sex couples to marry, or it will join Connecticut and Vermont to offer couples lesser protections through civil unions.  California, Hawaii and Maine offer domestic partner registries. Maryland offers no legal recognition to same-sex couples.

In her dissenting opinion in favor of marriage equality, Chief Justice Poritz wrote, "Denying the rights and benefits to committed same-sex couples that are statutorily given to their heterosexual counterparts violates the equal protection guarantee of Article I, Paragraph I.  I can find no principled basis, however, on which to distinguish those rights and benefits from the right to the title of marriage, and therefore dissent from the majority's opinion insofar as it declines to recognize that right among all of the other rights and benefits that will be available to same-sex couples.

According to 2000 census data, there are more than 11,000 families headed by same-sex couples in Maryland, in every county in the state.  In January, a Baltimore Circuit Court judge ruled in a case brought by the ACLU and Equality Maryland on behalf of nine couples and a widower that Maryland's 33-year-old law against same-sex marriage violates the State's Equal Rights Amendment.  The case has been appealed and oral arguments before the Court of Appeals have been scheduled for December 4.