New York, NY – Today the New York Appellate Division, First Department, located in Manhattan, will hear oral arguments on the same-sex marriage case known as Hernandez v. Robles. The appellate court converted Liberty Counsel’s request to intervene into amicus status and accepted the brief. The intervention was filed on behalf of the New York Family Policy Council, state Senators Ruben Diaz Sr. and Raymond Meier, state Assemblyman Daniel Hooker, business owner Michael Long, and City Action Coalition, a large coalition of pastors representing numerous religious denominations.

On February 2, 2005, Judge Doris Ling-Cohan issued a decision in the Hernandez case declaring New York’s marriage laws unconstitutional. Judge Cohan’s decision came on the heels of three separate New York state court decisions which upheld the state’s marriage laws. Liberty Counsel filed briefs in each case that upheld the marriage laws. Following the lower court’s ruling in Hernandez, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg made public statements that he favored same-sex marriage. Mayor Bloomberg also directed his Chief Legal Counsel to write a letter to the Empire State Pride Agenda in which he reaffirmed his support for granting marriage rights to same-sex couples.

Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, commented: “Every court in New York but one has followed common sense and the clear law that declares marriage is the union of one man and one woman. The New York situation, where one judge can tip the scales of history, underscores the point that marriage is a matter for the people to decide. Moms and dads, husbands and wives, are best for children. ”

Yesterday, Liberty Counsel presented oral argument before the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, located in Albany, in the same-sex marriage case of Hebel v. Village of New Paltz, New York, where the lower trial court ordered Mayor Jason West and any other Village official to comply with the law, which law does not permit the solemnization of same-sex marriages. Rulings on both cases are expected later this year.

Mat Staver has written a book regarding same-sex marriage. Published by Broadman & Holman, the book is entitled, Same-Sex Marriage: Putting Every Household at Risk. Copies of the book are available at LC.org.

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