Retirement Wishes for Deborah T. Poritz
I’d like to wish Deborah T. Poritz a happy retirement. Her seventieth birthday is today and she retired yesterday from her position as Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Choice quote:
“You say it over and over again, it is a historical fact, as Justice Long has pointed out, that marriage has been defined as between a man and a woman, but there are other historical facts that for a long time, women were property in the marriage relationship. For a long time, women could not make a claim of rape against a husband. There’ve been lots of ways in which the traditional idea of marriage and the relationship of marriage has changed, so why would we just simply defer. It’s historical. It’s over.”
That’s from some of the earlier proceedings in the Lewis v. Harris case decided yesterday. She certainly went out with a great opinion. If you have the time, be sure to read it on pages 70-89 of the court’s decision (PDF).