President Bush said today:

“Yesterday in New Jersey, we had another activist court issue a ruling that raises doubts about the institution of marriage. I believe that marriage is a union between a man and a woman.”

But remember, the court didn’t order the legislature to create gay marriage. It said that the state constitution requires equal rights for gay couples, and it will let the legislature decide whether this will come in the form of marriage or of civil unions.

And remember, as I noted yesterday, that President Bush has stated that he doesn’t oppose civil unions. “I don’t think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that’s what a state chooses to do so,” he said shortly before the 2004 elections. He also said, “I strongly believe that marriage ought to be defined as between a union between a man and a woman. Now, having said that, states ought to be able to have the right to pass laws that enable people to be able to have rights like others.” (Emphasis added.)

So: the New Jersey Supreme Court did not order the legislature to create gay marriage. If the legislature decides to create civil unions, Bush would presumably not have a problem with that. But if the legislature goes the extra step and creates marriage for gays, that would be entirely the legislature’s choice; the court would not be imposing it.

Therefore, Bush is wrong. The court did not “raise doubts about the institution of marriage.” It mandated no more than civil unions, something the president has already stated he supports.

So Bush is a flip-flopper.

But let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. The only interpretation that would show consistency in Bush’s statements is that he believes civil unions should be entirely a choice of the legislature and that courts should stay out of it. But it’s a court’s job to interpret the constitution; that’s the principle of judicial review, a principle that goes back to the founding of our nation. And when the constitional principle of equal protection is combined with New Jersey’s longstanding Law Against Discrimination that bars differential treatment based on sexual orientation, equal rights for gay couples is obvious. The members of the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously agreed on this. It was entirely within the court’s purview to order equal rights.

Bush is just plain wrong.

(Big surprise.)