New Mexico Justices to Rule on Gay Marriage [View all]

[RandySF]

SANTA FE, N.M. — The New Mexico Supreme Court is poised to decide once and for all whether same-sex marriage is legal in this state, addressing an issue that the Legislature has for years failed to resolve and the governor has avoided — but that Democratic county clerks have embraced, under threats of legal action and at considerable political risk.

In a packed hearing at the territorial courthouse here on Wednesday, one broadcast live for the first time in the court’s history, lawyers for both sides presented their cases, trying in their arguments to resolve the question: Do gay men and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry in New Mexico?

The case reached the Supreme Court here with unprecedented speed, propelled by the state’s 33 county clerks, who in August petitioned for legal guidance on whether they were allowed to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Seven of them started doing so in recent months, backed by district court rulings that affirmed the rights of same-sex couples based on a provision of the New Mexico Constitution that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

So far, the biggest winner is Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican who tempered her personal opposition to same-sex marriage by saying that voters ought to decide. In hearing the case, the Supreme Court effectively took her out of the equation, deflecting pressure from religious conservatives, who have carried the opposition to same-sex marriage in the state, as well as criticism from progressive groups, which turned the debate into a referendum about fairness.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/us/politics/new-mexico-justices-to-rule-on-gay-marriage.html