redblueamerica.com

Gay marriage advocates have won a partial victory in New York, as the state’s highest court has left in place a lower court ruling that recognized a lesbian couple as being married.

The Court of Appeals declined yesterday to review the mid-level appellate court’s decision to recognize the couple’s Canadian marriage, the first such ruling by an appellate court in New York State.

For now, that lower court decision remains binding across the state.

In 2006, the state’s Court of Appeals found that there was no right to same-sex marriages under the state constitution, leaving unanswered the question of whether the state would recognize same-sex marriages and civil unions performed in other states and abroad. So far, lower courts around the state have mostly said yes.