Cherry Hill Couples File for Same-Sex Marriage Licenses

Within a few hours of New Jersey’s Supreme Court decision Friday allowing same-sex marriages in the state, Cherry Hill saw its first handful of applications for same-sex licenses.

Interested couples indutated township offices with calls by mid-afternoon, township spokeswoman Bridget Palmer said, and first couple had come in by 4 p.m.

Four couples got in their applications before 5 p.m. Friday, and will be married at the municipal building in a ceremony overseen by Mayor Chuck Cahn Monday afternoon.

“It has been a very exciting afternoon,” Palmer said.

The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision prevented the stay on same-sex marriage Gov. Chris Christie had sought after Superior Court Judge Mary C. Jacobson ruled last month that same-sex marriages would become legal effective Monday.

South Jersey lawmakers hailed the decision as a victory for equal rights.

Assemblyman Lou Greenwald said he was “overjoyed” at the Supreme Court’s decision to allow same-sex marriages to go on for now, pending a final ruling.

“Make no mistake, marriage equality will be the law of the land in New Jersey; it is a simple matter of when, not if,” he wrote earlier in the day.

State Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney said legislators will work to ensure marriage equality remains the standard in New Jersey, even as the court case proceeds.

“This unanimous ruling is yet another victory in the fight for marriage equality in New Jersey, and affirms what we already knew: that same-sex marriage will inevitably be the law of the land,” Sweeney said. “October 21st will go down in history as the day same-sex New Jersey couples were finally provided the freedom to marry, a right that millions of people in this state already have.”