Newsday reports that New Paltz, New York's Mayor Jason West was charged with 19 violations of New York's domestic relations law after presiding over gay marriages last week.
Mayor West was "was ordered to appear in court Wednesday to answer charges that he broke state law by solemnizing about two dozen weddings without a marriage license, according to New Paltz police and West's lawyer."
According to Newsday:
Chief Raymond Zappone said he and a lieutenant from the town police served a 19-count summons to West Tuesday afternoon and that the mayor faces up a $500 fine and a year in jail for his actions which have attracted international attention and brought the fight over gay marriages squarely into New York.
The actions come as West is planning to hold more ceremonies this weekend and with other officials around the state considering similar actions. It also coincides with increasing pressure on State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who last week refused a call by the governor to prevent and nullify the marriages, to step in and issue some clarifying words on the complex legal issues at play.
New York Republican Governor George Pataki and Democratic Attorney General Eliot Spitzer don't agree on gay marriage. The issue gets a little more complicated because Pataki is the governor and Spitzer wants to be the governor.
According to Newsday:
"We think the law in New York, for centuries, has been very clear that marriage in New York State is between a man and a women," Pataki told reporters.
Spitzer, however, was not on board. After hours of delay during which aides indicated that he agreed the New Paltz weddings were illegal, Spitzer eventually said he was not going to act - and said he had told Pataki's office there would be no injunction long before the governor "pretended to ask us to get one."
"We are not seeking an injunction against the New Paltz mayor or others solemnizing same-sex marriages," Spitzer said. "The standard for an injunction is immediate and irreparable harm, and that standard cannot be met. The validity of the marriages will be determined in the courts in due course."
[. . .]
There is no "gender specific" language in New York's marriage law limiting marriage to opposite sex individuals, legal experts say. Because of that, a panel of the Bar Association of the City of New York concluded in 2001 that same-sex marriages probably are permissible.
Traditionally, however, they have never been performed, and the state's Department of Health has advised clerks around the state not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. That position is based on several lower court rulings, some involving the voiding of marriages when one partner did not know the other was of the same sex until after they were wed.
The New Paltz marriages involve two other complications. The state's marriage law empowers mayors to marry people, but says a "license" issued by a town clerk is "necessary," and says that a mayor is guilty of a misdemeanor and can have the power to marry suspended for 90 days for violation of that provision.
The town clerk in New Paltz has refused to issue licenses for the same-sex marriages West conducted Friday. Although Spitzer himself declined to express an opinion, spokesmen for both Spitzer and the state's health department said Friday that because of that, the mayor's actions were clearly illegal.
But there's one more wrinkle, according to experts - a provision of the marriage law indicates, even if a mayor violates the law and marries a couple without a license, the marriage itself is not "void." So, if it turns out same-sex marriages are permissible, couples that wed Friday may have a valid marriage.
The New York Post has this take on Spitzer's position.
First, the AG called West's acts "clearly illegal."
Quickly, he reversed course, saying only that the weddings "may be illegal."
Yesterday, Spitzer had this to say:
"There are all sorts of legal violations going on that we involve ourselves in, that we don't involve ourselves in, depending upon the circumstances, the equities, the law."
Translation: It doesn't matter what the law says regarding homosexual marriage. I ain't gonna enforce it.
Not quite yet, anyway.
And maybe never.
I applaud New York's Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams for having the guts to formally charge Mayor West. District Attorney Williams is the first official to do his duty to enforce the rule law on this issue. By taking on this issue Williams will allow New York to resolve whether same sex marriages are legal or not under New York State law.
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