N.J. Court Rejects Marriage Case

The New Jersey supreme court will not hear a case filed by six same-sex couples seeking the right to marry without the lawsuit first making its way through lower courts.

The couples' suit comes after the state legislature failed to pass a marriage-equality bill. The couples argue that New Jersey's four-year-old civil-union law does not grant them the full rights extended to heterosexual married couples.

"At the very least, oral argument would have helped to guide us on the best procedural course for creating such a record," Virginia Long wrote in her dissent.