http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/new-york-highest-court-marriages-half-uncles-half-nieces-blog-entry-1.1990001?cid=bitlyby Glenn Blain
October 28, 2014
In a unanimous ruling, the Court of Appeals found that New York’s Domestic Relations Law does not consider marriages where the husband is the half-brother of the wife’s mother to be incestuous.
“First cousins are allowed to marry in New York and I conclude that that it was not the Legislature’s purpose to avert the similar, relatively small genetic risk inherent in relationships like this one,” Judge Robert Smith, a Republican, wrote in an opinion that was joined by two other judges on the court.
The ruling stems from a federal immigration case in Rochester that involved the marriage of a then-19-year-old woman, Huyen Nguyen, in 2000. The woman was a citizen of Vietnam and married her 24-year-old half uncle, Vu Truong, who was a United States citizen.
The bride’s grandmother – Nguyen Thi Ba – was also Vu Truong’s mother. Vu Truong, however, had a different father than the bride’s mother.
A federal immigration judge later ruled that the marriage was bogus and ordered the bride removed from the country. A federal appeals court, however, asked New York’s highest court to decide whether such marriages were, in fact, legal in the state.
New York’s highest court found that while marriages between uncles and nieces or aunts and nephews are illegal under state law, there’s no prohibition on relations between half-blooded uncles and nieces and aunts and nephews.
Judge Victoria Graffeo, in an opinion that was joined by two other judges, agreed that there was no prohibition but suggested the state Legislature may want to revisit the issue.
“Such relationships could implicate one of the purposes underlying incest laws, i.e., ‘maintaining the stability of the family hierarchy by protecting young family members from exploitation by older family members in positions of authority, and by reducing competition and jealous friction among family members,’” Graffeo wrote.
Full decision at link.
