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Group Files Lawsuit to Challenge Same Sex Marriage

By DNAinfo Staff on July 25, 2011 5:32pm

MANHATTAN — A conservative group has filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the state's same-sex marriage law, a day after hundreds of gay couples tied the knot on the first day that marriage equality went into effect.

The group, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, says the historic Marriage Equality Act was passed illegally, claiming that state legislators and Governor Andrew Cuomo operated behind closed doors to get the bill passed.

"In what many are heralding as a big step forward for gay rights, others are questioning whether the corrupt legislative process by which the Act passed renders the entire Act a nullity," the group claimed in a civil complaint it plans to file.

The group's executive director, Rev. Jason McGuire, charged that "Constitutional liberties were violated" with the bill's passage on June 24.

"It is unfortunate that state senators chose to protect their personal interests, rather than the people they were elected to represent. Some of the players may have changed, but it looks like [the] same old Albany game," he continued in a statement on the group's website.

New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms named Governor Cuomo, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the New York State Department of Health and the New York Senate in the court papers, which are also available on the group's website.

Cuomo's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A call to the NYCF's attorney was not immediately returned. It is unclear whether the state has been formally served with the complaint.