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Effects of <i>Hernandez</i> Reach Beyond New York

By Mark Fass
January 31, 2007

The New York Court of Appeals' July, 2006 ruling in Hernandez v. Robles has had implications beyond its core holding that same-sex couples may not marry in New York ' and beyond New York. Six months after the state's highest court handed down its decision barring such unions, the case has been cited in 11 published decisions ' six of the 11 times by courts in other jurisdictions. Courts from Washington to Nebraska to Massachusetts have cited Hernandez to support their decisions to narrow or restrict the rights of gays to marry.

Beyond New York

Hernandez has been cited by appellate courts in four other jurisdictions in same-sex marriage cases, three times as support of its prohibition and once when the concurring chief judge of the New Jersey Supreme Court cited Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye's impassioned dissent in support of the right of gays to marry. The Supreme Court of Washington, the California Court of Appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit all cited Hernandez in decisions disallowing same-sex marriage. In the Washington case, the court reversed two lower court decisions holding the state's Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. Responding to a passionate dissent, the court cited Judge Smith's response to Judge Kaye's opinion:

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