Mark Lewis and Dennis Winslow; Saundra Heath and Clarita Alicia Toby; Craig Hutchison and Chris Lodewyks; Maureen…

Summary

The New Jersey Supreme Court held that denying same‑sex couples the statutory rights and benefits afforded to opposite‑sex married couples violates the equal‑protection guarantee of Article I, Paragraph 1 of the State Constitution, and ordered the Legislature to amend the marriage statutes or create a parallel scheme within 180 days. Chief Justice Poritz, in a concurring‑in‑part/dissenting‑in‑part opinion, argued that the majority should also recognize a fundamental due‑process right to marry and the right to the name "marriage".