The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled on the issue of gay marriage. From the opinion (download the PDF here):

HELD: Denying committed same-sex couples the financial and social benefits and privileges given to their married heterosexual counterparts bears no substantial relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose. The Court holds that under the equal protection guarantee of Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, committed same-sex couples must be afforded on equal terms the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes. The name to be given to the statutory scheme that provides full rights and benefits to same-sex couples, whether marriage or some other term, is a matter left to the democratic process.

I haven’t had time to make my way through the full decision, but it sounds fairly reasonable to me off the top. Readers of MO and my columns on the issue know I’ve never particularly favored the judicial approach to winning same-sex marriage rights. It’s better to win such a major change in our nation’s social fabric through the democratic process. That said, I’ve grown more and more convinced that the concrete benefits of marriage — the civil aspects — might properly be within the scope of the courts.

Now, on first reading, it looks like the question of what to call this — “marriage” or “civil union” or “Shirley” — goes to the Legislature in the next 180 days.

As for the political fall-out: I’d say this has some potential to rile up the Religious Right, but the court has gone some way toward blunting the political impact by not forcing the term “marriage” onto the arrangement as was done in Massachusetts.

How much of this issue can be defused nationally with a semantic distinction? I tend to think semantics can go a long way on an issue that’s so wrapped up in symbolism. But I would — as Andrew Sullivan has — question whether “marriage supporters,” as they fancy themselves, really want to create a “marriage-lite” option (civil unions) just to keep gays out of the primo “marriage” stash.

A lot of questions going forward. Looks like New Jersey gets to wrestle with them over the next six months.

Stay tuned…