N.J. gay-marriage issue headed for court | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/09/2010

N.J. gay-marriage issue headed for court | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/09/2010:

'If you have many legislators getting up and saying publicly in a floor debate that the civil-unions law doesn't work, I think there's an opportunity to go before the courts and say the Legislature says it doesn't work,' Dworkin said.

In the floor debate Thursday, legislators on both sides of the issue acknowledged that the civil-unions law in New Jersey is imperfect.

Same-sex marriage supporters argued that is because separate can never be equal, while their opponents argued the law simply needs to be better enforced.

The state Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that the state must provide same-sex couples with the same rights and privileges as married heterosexual couples, but left it to the Legislature to decide what to call the couples' relationships. The Legislature chose to call them civil unions rather than marriages.