Opponents to New York’s same-gender marriage law filed the first lawsuit challenging the measure, an anticipated salvo that came one day after weddings were celebrated around the state.
A representative of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms and a rabbi said in a lawsuit filed Monday in state court that New York’s Senate violated its own procedures and the state’s open meetings law when it approved the bill on June 24.
The lawsuit claims that the Senate prevented lawmakers who opposed the bill from speaking and that the Senate didn’t follow procedures that require a bill to go through appropriate committees before a full Senate vote.
Opponents of the same-gender marriage law had promised lawsuits.
“We should have an open and deliberative process,” the Rev. Jason McGuire, executive director of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, told The Associated Press. “If truly the legislation can stand on its own merits then it should be able to withstand being deliberated publicly.”
Spokesmen for Senate Republicans and the state’s attorney general declined to comment.
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
