The New York Court of Appeals, which is New York’s version of the state supreme court, threw out a challenge to the state’s law permitting gay couples to marry (specifically, they refused to take the bad guys’ appeal, so it’s over).

Apparently this is a big deal. And I don’t mean that I don’t think winning a gay marriage case is a big deal, but rather that the quote from Governor Cuomo is rather superlative.

for a while.”With the Court’s decision, same-sex couples no longer have to worry that their right to marry could be legally challenged in this State,” Gov. Cuomo, who pushed for passage of the law last year, said in a statement. “The freedom to marry in this State is secure for generations to come.”

It’s not really guaranteed for generations to come. The Congress could attempt to pass Mitt Romney’s Federal Marriage Amendment, codifying anti-gay bigotry in the US Constitution and wreaking havoc with our civil rights, even in the private sector.

Or, some other bigot could take up a case trying to get the law overturned. You can always file a suit against a law. I’ll wait for some of the locals to weigh in, but I suspect this was the best chance the bad guys had at a case against the law, and they lost, so that would mean the law is in good stead.