I'll just appoint someone to make it all better

I missed half the story about NJ Gov. Chris Christie's veto of gay marriage. As part of his message when he wielded the veto pen, he said (1) citizens have a right to vote on such an important issue (we've been here before), (2) civil unions are supposed to be as good as marriage (yup, that was the original demand of the state Supremes that caused civil unions to be created), and (3) perhaps the state should appoint a civil union ombudsman.

The job of an ombudsman would be to investigate complaints that civil union partners are being discriminated against and work to fix the situation. Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin notes that because Christie thinks this is a necessary (and acceptable) solution is evidence that civil unions are not equivalent to marriage and thus fail the demand of the NJ Supremes.



Also in marriage equality news, the Calif. marriage ban is to go before an 11 judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court. It was a 3 judge panel that ruled recently. A lot of commenters think the anti-gay side is doing this (rather than heading straight for the Supremes) just because it will delay the end result that much longer. This step may add as much as a year to the process, with a ruling not until 2014. Some also speculate a reason for the delay is a hope for a GOP prez. win in Nov. followed by a progressive Supreme retirement replaced with a conservative before this case gets that far.