The following is by Family Council staff member Deborah Beuerman.

 At 12:01am October 21, several same-sex couples in New Jersey were “married” after the state Supreme Court rejected Gov. Chris Christie’s request to delay until after his appeal of an earlier lower court ruling could be heard.

In September, a state court judge ruled that, in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling mandating that the federal government recognize same-sex “marriages,” New Jersey must allow them.  Gov. Christie appealed that decision and asked for a stay on it.

Gov. Christie has said that voters at the ballot box, not a court or legislators, should decide the issue.  But Gov. Christie dropped his legal challenge to a same-gender law on October 21.

“Although the Governor strongly disagrees with the Court substituting its judgment for the constitutional process of the elected branches or a vote of the people, the Court has now spoken clearly as to their view of the New Jersey Constitution and, therefore, same-sex marriage is the law,” the Christie administration said in a statement. “The Governor will do his constitutional duty and ensure his Administration enforces the law as dictated by the New Jersey Supreme Court.”

With the wave of a wand, or a pound of the gavel, New Jersey becomes the 14th state to allow “gay marriages”.  Neither the people nor their elected representatives were given a voice in the matter.  In the decision, the Court wrote:

“What is the public’s interest in a case like this? Like Judge Jacobson, [the lower court judge] we can find no public interest in depriving a group of New Jersey residents of their constitutional right to equal protection while the appeals process unfolds.”

How does the court know the public’s interest?  Did they ask?  Depriving residents of their right to marry?  I am sure that all residents of New Jersey have equal right to marry.  Just changing the definition of a word does not change its inherent meaning.  Marriage has always been defined as a union of one man and one woman.  The magic wand of the court can never change that.  A group of New Jersey residents was deprived of nothing except their desires to force the rest of the state’s people to change their vocabulary.  Talk of creating same-sex unions is quite another matter.

The other 13 states that recognize same-sex “marriage” are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia.  Only 3 of these 14 state laws are the result of popular vote.  Six laws were passed by the state legislatures, and five came into being by court decision.

In three other states, New Mexico, Michigan and Hawaii, decisions are being weighed to allow same-sex “marriage”.  In none will the people decide.  In fact, in Michigan, the people have already decided.   “The citizens of Michigan, like those of over half the states, made their decision at the ballot box, and only they should have the prerogative to change that decision,” said Austin R. Nimocks, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom.

In Oregon, courts have decided that a same-sex couple’s marriage outside of Oregon will be recognized in Oregon. The state of Oregon is in now the ironic position of giving same-sex “marriages” the same legal standing as any other marriage in Oregon while same-sex couples are still banned from getting “married” inside the state.

The people of Arkansas voted overwhelmingly in 2004 to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.  Almost one out of ten adults in Arkansas signed the petition to place Amendment 83 on the ballot. Seventy-five percent of voters voted for the amendment.

Those who would attempt to change the definition have begun an effort to overturn our state marriage amendment.  But given that, according to a recent poll, the overwhelming majority of Arkansans still oppose any effort to redefine marriage, it’s unlikely marriage will be redefined at the ballot box in Arkansas any time soon.