For Immediate Release
10/18/2013
Kate Coscarelli
Sr. Director, Communications
732-937-7548
Statement of New Jersey State Bar President Ralph J. Lamparello on the
Garden State Equality v. Dow decision
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - The New Jersey State Bar Association applauds the unanimous decision today from the New Jersey Supreme Court denying the state’s request for a stay in the marriage equality case,
Garden State Equality v. Dow. New Jersey’s independent judiciary has had a long and noble history at the forefront of advancing civil rights for all. Today’s opinion continues that tradition of ensuring that all can enjoy the freedoms and protections our Constitution has to offer.
Since 2007, the New Jersey State Bar Association has advocated that New Jersey’s civil union law is a failed experiment in discrimination and that it violates the New Jersey Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection for all citizens of this state. Coincidentally, earlier today the Association’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to appear in the pending case as a friend of the court in support of marriage equality, on behalf of the plaintiffs, as it did in the earlier Lewis v. Harris marriage equality case.