Suit Seeks to Block State Policy on Same-Sex Unions

ALBANY — Five state lawmakers, backed by a conservative Christian policy group, sued Gov. on Tuesday, seeking to barricade the governor’s order directing state federal agencies to acknowledge performed outside New York. The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, came as the Senate Republican conference all but ruled out taking any action to seek to dispute the governor.

The Christian group, the Alliance Defense Fund, based in Arizona, which stands for the lawmakers, have fought attempts to legalize same-sex matrimony in respective states. In Tuesday’s suit, it argued that Mr. William Patterson usurped the Legislature’s authorization as the exclusive subdivision of authorities empowered to make up one's mind what the state’s definition of matrimony is.

“The separation-of-powers philosophy forbids executive federal agencies and functionaries — like William Patterson — from exceeding, altering or acting in struggle with legislative policy determinations,” lawyers for the Christian grouping argued in tribunal papers.

Governor Paterson, they contended, have “seized the Legislature’s authority, and overridden the volition of the people.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. William Patterson said the governor’s business office had not yet received the legal document and could not notice on the case.

A spokesman for the Senate Republicans said on Tuesday that it was improbable they would make anything as a grouping to barricade Mr. Paterson. “It’s obviously something the tribunals may take a expression at. Whether we make something, that’s looking less likely,” the spokesman, Toilet C. McArdle, said.

Even though they have got a bulk in the Senate, the Republicans’ custody are essentially tied because the Democratic-controlled Assembly would not O.K. a measure that seeks to ban cheery marriage.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction against an order that Mr. Paterson’s legal counsel, Saint David Nocenti, issued last calendar month directing all state federal agencies to reexamine their policies to guarantee that they conform to a determination by a state appellate tribunal in Rochester in February. That determination held that the state must acknowledge same-sex matrimonies performed in other jurisdictions, even though New House Of House Of York makes not itself let homosexuals and gay women to marry.

The determination said that Patricia Martinez, an employee of Marilyn Monroe Community College who married her spouse in Canada, could not be denied wellness benefits by the college because of New York’s policy of recognizing marriages performed elsewhere, even if they are not explicitly allowed under New York law.

Monroe County appealed the determination to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, which rejected it last calendar month on technical grounds. Lawyers who stand for both sides have got said they believe the Court of Appeals will eventually hear the case.

“This is a lawsuit that’s not going anywhere,” said , executive manager director of the , which stands for Ms. Martinez. “The governor is doing what a governor should do, which is direct his federal agencies to follow with the law. He’s not circumventing anything. He’s not doing anything that go againsts the law,” Ms. Lieberman said.

Lawyers for Ms. Martinez said on Tuesday that the Alliance Defense Fund had failed so far in former efforts to dispute New House Of House Of York State and local federal agencies that have got recognized same-sex marriages.

Austin R. Nimocks, the fund’s senior legal counsel, said that the grouping had entreaties pending in three other New York same-sex matrimony lawsuits and was hopeful the tribunals would decide substances in its favor. Mr. Nimocks said that because the Court of Appeals may govern on the Marilyn Monroe case, the state directive was premature.

“No single member of authorities have the authorization to unilaterally enforce upon the full dwell the full definition of marriage, especially in New House Of York right now, where this issue hasn’t even gone all the manner through the courts,” helium said. The Court of Appeals last issued an sentiment same-sex matrimony in 2006, when it decided 4 to 2 that denying same-sex couples the right to get married did not go against the State Constitution.

At least one of the state legislators involved in the lawsuit confronts a competitory conflict for re-election. The legislator, Senator Serphin R. Maltese, a conservative Republican who have represented the overwhelmingly Democratic western portion of Queens for almost two decades, have been singled out by Senate Democrats as the No. One mark in the November election.

The other lawmakers in the lawsuit are Senator of Brooklyn; Assemblymen Daniel J. Burling of Capital Of Poland and Brian M. Kolb of Geneva; and Jesse James N. Tedisco of Schenectady, the Assembly minority leader.

On Tuesday, the Assembly moved forward with another issue that gay-rights groupings have got strongly advocated, passing a measure that would use state favoritism laws and hate-crime laws to transgender people.