A New York State court ruled on Friday, February 4th that same-sex couples must be allowed to marry. State Supreme Court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan said in the decision that the basic freedoms that are granted to same-sex loving people under the State Constitution were violated when same-sex couples were not given the right to marry in New York State. The ruling said the Constitution requires same-sex couples to have equal access to marriage, and that the plaintiffs in the case must be given marriage licenses. Lambda Legal had filed the lawsuit in 2004 on behalf of five couples who wanted to get marriage licenses in New York City.

Justice Ling-Cohan stayed the ruling for 30 days in case there is an appeal. Because the New York State Supreme Court is a trial-level court, the City of New York could appeal the ruling to a higher court. Thus, the legality of gay marriage in New York is likely to be decided by the Court of Appeals, which is the state's highest court. On Thursday, a judge in an Albany court had reinstated charges that New Paltz Mayor Jason West had not lived up to his oath of office to uphold the law when he had issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples last year.

Lambda Legal is currently litigating cases seeking marriage for same-sex couples in New Jersey, California (with NCLR and ACLU) and Washington State (with NWLC). The Washington State Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in that lawsuit on March 8, and a decision is pending from the trial court in the California case. Meanwhile, some same-sex couples in Massachusetts had already filed for divorce by the end of 2004, which was the first year in which they were allowed to marry in that state.

Past Indybay Coverage of the same-sex marriage struggle in New York State