New Jersey Statutes Title 37. Marriages and Married Persons 37 § 1-1.1

a. On September 27, 2013, Hon. Mary C. Jacobson, A.J.S.C. ruled in Garden State Equality v. Dow, 434 N.J. Super. 163 (Law Div. 2013) that New Jersey's exclusion of same-sex couples from civil marriage violated the equal protection guarantee of the New Jersey Constitution. The New Jersey Supreme Court declined to issue a stay of the lower court's order. Same-sex couples have been getting married in New Jersey since October 18, 2013, the day the State withdrew its appeal in the case.

b. Seven years before Garden State Equality v. Dow, the New Jersey Supreme Court had ruled unanimously inLewis v. Harris, 188 N.J. 415 (2006) that same-sex couples are entitled to all of the rights, privileges, and obligations of marriage as opposite-sex couples. In response to the Lewis v. Harris decision, the Legislature enacted P.L.2006, c. 103 (C.37:1-28 et al.), which established same-sex civil unions in New Jersey.

c. The New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission created by the Legislature concluded in 2008, after significant public hearings and discussion, that same-sex civil unions provided unequal treatment to same-sex couples in the State. In addition, under federal law, same-sex civil union couples did not have access to federal benefits available to married couples.

d. Section 2 of P.L.2021, c. 343, amending N.J.S.37:1-1 is intended to bring New Jersey statutory law into conformance with the 2013 decision in Garden State Equality v. Dow as well as the 2015 United States Supreme Court decision in Obergefell et al. v. Hodges, Director, Ohio Department of Health, et al., 576 U.S. 644 (2015).Obergefell held that same-sex marriage is a fundamental right and that all states are required to allow same-sex couples to marry.

e. This Legislature, in recognition of the New Jersey Supreme Court's unanimous holding in Lewis v. Harris; the New Jersey Superior Court's ruling in Garden State Equality v. Dow; and the United States Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, and recognizing that New Jersey same-sex couples' right to marry has never been codified and made more secure by the enactment of a statute, finds that it is necessary to enact this legislation.