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Due Process And Equal Protection: A Constitutional Approach To Same-Sex Marriage, Ashley Musselman

Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy

On July 6, 2006, the Court of Appeals of New York decided Hernandez v. Robles. At issue in that case was whether New York's Domestic Relations Law violated the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the New York constitution by limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. The plaintiffs were members of forty-four same-marriage licenses in the State of New York. The case began as four separate lawsuits in which the plaintiffs sought a declaratory judgment against "the license-issuing authorities of New York City, Albany, and Ithaca; the State Department of Health, which instructs local authorities about the issuance …