US judges slam gay marriage

2005-12-09 11:35

New York - A United States state appeals court has reversed a ruling that would have allowed same-sex couples to get married in New York City, saying it's not the role of judges to redefine the terms "husband" and "wife."

On Thursday, the US state supreme court's appellate division ruled 4-1 that justice Doris Ling-Cohan had erred in her February decision.

Ling-Cohan ruled New York's domestic relations law unconstitutional because it does not permit marriage between people of the same sex.

The court criticised the way Ling-Cohan's judgement proceeded: "We find it even more troubling that the court, upon determining the statute to be unconstitutional, proceeded to rewrite it and purportedly create a new constitutional right."

Court cannot define terms

The appellate court said this "was an act that exceeded the court's constitutional mandate and usurped that of the legislature."

The appellate judges said it is not for the court to redefine terms that are given clear meaning in a legislative statute.

Ling-Cohan had ruled that the words "husband", "wife", "groom" and "bride", as they appear in New York domestic relations law should be defined to apply equally to men and women.

The judges said: "The legislative policy rationale is that society and government have a strong interest in fostering heterosexual marriage as the social institution that best forges a linkage between sex, procreation and child rearing."

The judges interpreted the gender-specific terms of New York law as showing the legislature had never intended to allow gay marriage.

The panel's only dissenter of the five judges hearing the appeal said laws that prohibit same-sex marriage perpetuate legal discrimination.

Gays denied equal protection

Ling-Cohan's ruling favoured five gay couples who sued New York City because the city clerk had denied their marriage licence applications on the ground that the state "does not authorise this office to grant marriage licences to same-sex couples."

The gay couples said this denied them their equal protection and due process rights guaranteed by the state constitution.

Ling-Cohan's decision barred the New York city clerk from denying marriage licences to couples solely on the ground that the two were of the same sex.

Her decision was the first of its kind in New York.

Susan Sommer, senior lawyer at Lambda Legal, the gay rights organisation spearheading the same-sex marriage drive, said the state appeals court ruling would be appealed.

- AP