Posted by
JDComments on Thursday, October 26, 2006 4:56:40 PM
In considering the NJ Court's recent ruling on Gay marriage, it strikes me that I have never really seen a judge order a law to be written as has happened here. I may be wrong, not being a lawyer, but the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution leaves the drafting of laws to the Congress, and the function of a Court is to evaluate and apply laws, and strike them down if they are unconstitutional. Now I am talking about the Federal Government here, and know even less about the State of New Jerseys Constitution or its structure of Government, but I honestly cannot ever remember any court anywhere demanding a legislative body write a law encompassing the judge's findings. This post is really a question- do any of you have another example of judges demanding lawmakers write or amend a law to their specifications and requirements, as opposed to invalidating an existing law, and leaving it up to the legislature to decide how to rectify it? Shouldn't the NJ Court either have found the existing law discriminatory and unconstitutional or allowing Gay marriages as written? Is this another step, and a major one, in the judiciary's grasp for power at the expense of the people's will?