BREAKING: New Jersey Supreme Court to hear marriage equality case

All of a sudden, marriage equality is heading to the New Jersey state Supreme Court.

From the AP:

The state's highest court on Friday agreed to hear a case on whether gay marriage should be legal and whether same-sex weddings can be performed while it decides.

A lower-court judge ruled last month that the state must legalize same-sex marriage starting Oct. 21, but Gov. Chris Christie's administration said in a court filing Friday that a single judge should not be able to force New Jersey to do so.

The argument was included in a brief the state submitted in support of its emergency appeal after a state judge refused to delay her order that New Jersey legalize same-sex marriage as of Oct. 21.

"To overhaul such an ancient social institution prematurely, precipitously, or in a manner ultimately deemed unnecessary would injure not only the public interest, but the State that represents this interest," the state attorney general's office said in its brief.

The state Supreme Court accepted the case Friday, skipping the normal course of letting an appeals court hear it first. Oral arguments were scheduled for January.

The issue at hand is that the state Supreme Court ruled years ago that New Jersey had to offer at least "equal" rights regarding marital status to LGBT couples. New Jersey passed civil unions as a compromise, but now with DOMA gone civil unions are now not "equal" to marriage because the Federal government doesn't recognize civil unions as "marriage."

A few steps will happen here:

1. The plaintiffs - the couples suing New Jersey - have until Tuesday to respond through their lawyers.
2. The NJ Supreme Court may place a stay on the October 21st date to begin marriage equality. Or they may not. We shall see.
3. The Supreme Court would then hear oral arguments on the full case beginning January 6 or 7.

Stay tuned.