Village of New Paltz, NY - Justice E. Michael Kavanagh with the Ulster County Supreme Court in New York has issued a permanent injunction. The court had previously issued a temporary restraining order against the Village officials on June 24, 2004, and entered a permanent injunction on June 7 against the Village mayor, Jason West. After the June 7 order was entered against Mayor West, Rebecca Rotzler and Julia Walsh - two other Village Board Trustees - began solemnizing same-sex "marriages." This order puts a halt to these "marriages." The lawsuit was filed by Liberty Counsel on behalf of Robert (Bob) Hebel, a member of the New Paltz Board of Trustees. Mr. Hebel is represented by Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, and Rena Lindevaldsen, Senior Litigation Counsel for Liberty Counsel.

Mayor West and some of the Village officials began solemnizing same-sex marriages following the lead of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom earlier this year. After the San Francisco mayor was stopped from issuing same-sex marriage licenses, the case there, challenging the constitutionality of the state's marriage laws, continues in the trial court.

Liberty Counsel is continuing to defend California's marriage laws in the San Francisco case. There, the same-sex marriage advocates recently stated the following in their brief: "This Court's task is not to sniff out (or bow to) some transcendent, untouchable "definition" of marriage. What plaintiffs overlook is a very obvious, but fundamental point: civil marriage in California is entirely a creature of statutory law. It is what the government says it is, nothing more and nothing less. On this question, cultural anthropology, the common law and even the Bible have nothing to add. Similarly, the values against which this civil law institution can be tested in this Court are solely those of the Constitution, which may not and need not reflect so-called "natural law," religious doctrine, or any other competing value system." These statements illustrate how hostile the same-sex marriage advocates are toward basic values shared by the majority of Americans.

Staver stated: "The battle to preserve traditional marriage is winnable. Recent victories in New York and other courts upholding marriage laws as constitutional show that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's decision in Goodridge is out of step with common sense."

Liberty Counsel is currently defending marriage in more than thirty cases throughout the country.