ACLU: Civil Unions Unequal to Marriage

The American Civil Liberties Union submitted an amicus brief for a lawsuit in New Jersey, which argues that civil unions are not equal to marriages.

According to a statement from the ACLU of New Jersey, the courts have allowed legislatures to enact separate systems of rights for minorities, but the ACLU contends that judges have always struck down those systems when they are shown to perpetuate disparities.

Vice dean of Rutgers-Newark School of Law Ronald Chen authored the amicus brief on behalf of the ACLU-NJ and seven other notable minority rights and civil rights organizations.

"A separate system of rights for a particular minority group has once again failed to fulfill the actual promise of equality, as has been the case throughout history," he said in a press release on Monday.

The state began issuing civil unions in 2006, after a court decided that gay couples deserved equal treatment.

The other signatories to the brief submitted today are the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Garden State Bar Association, the Hispanic Bar Association, Legal Momentum, and the National Organization for Women of New Jersey.