A lesson in civil procedure

In response to the recent court ruling, Erin said the following:

I would be interested in knowing peoples' opinions on whether raising the gay marriage issue last year was poorly timed. This decision can still be overturned on appeal before reaching the Supreme Court, can't it? I'm of the opinion that the issue should have been raised, but doing so in an election year against a candidate who appeals to the Christian right as it is was kind of not-so-good a move.....anyway I hope this works!!!

If the city chooses to appeal (which they most likely will), they will appeal to the Appellate Division (an intermediate level court). This decision will be binding in all lower courts (I'm not sure but I think it would be all NYC courts, but it's possible that it'd be only Manhattan).

The party that loses at the Appellate Division can appeal to the New York State Court of Appeals. The decision from that court binds the whole state, and because it's a State Constitutional Issue, there is no further appeal. That's why the Massachussetts ruling wasn't appealed to the Supreme Court too. The Supreme Court can only hear state cases if there's a U.S. Constitution issue. So there would have to be a conflict between the State Constitution and the U.S. Constitution on the issue of same-sex marriage, and unless that Amendment magically passes, there is no U.S. constitutional issue.

When I met with Jeff, he mentioned that there is another appeal process that lets someone appeal directly to the Court of Appeals, instead of going through the Appellate Division. I doubt the city will do that, because it might bind the entire state if they lost. Jeff also mentioned that the New Paltz case (which is being handled by a different firm) might beat them to the court of appeals. We'll see how it goes.

But I love this stuff, and no, erin, it's not going to get to the Supreme Court.