New York State Supreme Court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan has struck down New York City's ban on gay marriages using the history of interracial marriages in America as a parallel to this issue and a justification for same-sex marriages. Judge Ling-Cohan wrote ""In fact, ironically, the parents of one of the named plaintiffs were, themselves, barred from marrying each other by an anti-miscegenation law that made it illegal for interracial couples to marry. . . There has been a steady evolution of the institution of marriage throughout history which belies the concept of a static traditional definition."
Ling-Cohan herself, a Chinese American daughter of a laundryman, has been married for 30 years to lawyer Marc Cohan, director of litigation at the nonprofit Welfare Law Center. After attending Brooklyn College and New York University Law School, she worked as an assistant attorney general and was first elected to Civil Court in 1995. In 2002, she was elected to the State Supreme Court (New York state's lowest-level trial court) with the backing of four political parties: Democratic, Republican, Liberal and Working Families.
Ling-Cohan has a history of advocating for the disadvantaged and downtrodden. She once went after con artists who were taking advantage of new Chinese immigrants, and last year she ruled against the city on one of Donald Trump's developments. (Source: AsianWeek , Feb 11, 2005)