Court rules N.Y. must recognize out-of-state gay marriages
  • In a ruling hailed as historic by gay rights activists, an appellate court ruled Friday that New York must recognize same-sex marriages legally consecrated elsewhere.

    This appears to be the first appellate ruling in the country mandating that a state must recognize the same-sex marriage of a couple legally wed elsewhere, according to officials with the New York Civil Liberties Union.

    The judges noted in the ruling that “for well over a century” New York has recognized marriages solemnized elsewhere unless they were cases of polygamy or incest. The state, for instance, has recognized marriages that could not be consecrated in New York, such as common-law marriages valid in other states, the judges ruled.