McLaughlin & Stern Retained to Challenge New York State on Same-Sex Marriages

McLaughlin & Stern has been retained as co-counsel by Nyack Mayor John Shields, his partner and nine other same-sex couples who filed suit against New York State and the town clerk of Orangetown who denied them marriage licenses, alleging that New York’s marriage laws are gender-neutral and therefore allow for same-sex marriage and claiming that the denial of marriage licenses unconstitutionally discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation. State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has indicated that such a ceremony would be illegal.