ALBANY -- The first of many expected legal challenges to the state's new gay marriage law was filed Monday in State Supreme Court by a group arguing that the State Senate violated a series of rules and laws last month when it enacted the Marriage Equality Act.

Members of the conservative group that sued asked the courts to halt gay-marriage ceremonies while the case is heard. They also want the hundreds of same-sex marriages performed in New York since the law took effect at 12:01 a.m. Sunday to be declared void.

The suit, filed by the leaders of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, an evangelical church group, alleges that the Senate engaged in a "corrupt process" that included violations of the state's open meetings laws, that it locked out constituents from public corridors to prevent access to senators and that Senate Republicans received donations for switching to back the measure.

The group is being represented by a Christian legal group based in Lynchburg, Va., that had ties to the late Rev. Jerry Falwell.

"This was greased to go," the Rev. Jason McGuire, who heads New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, said of the June 24 gay-marriage vote.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, R-Rockville Centre, declined to comment Monday.

McGuire contends that a number of procedures helped to make the vote illegal, including not holding a Senate Rules Committee meeting to consider the bill before it went to the floor and shutting off debate during the brief deliberations.

He said the GOP-led Senate had two goals the night of the vote: to beat back any second thoughts by senators leaning toward a yes vote and to help Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's publicity campaign for the bill's passage.

"I think they were moving in such a way to aid the governor and to get him maximum news coverage on the 11 o'clock news," McGuire said of the bill that passed quickly and before the evening news shows ended.

The suit was filed in State Supreme Court in Livingston County, where McGuire lives, against the Senate, Department of Health and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

The suit contends the state's open meetings laws were violated on at least two occasions, including one closed-door meeting between Senate Republicans and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a gay-marriage supporter who later donated to several senators, including Sen. Mark Grisanti, R-Buffalo, after they voted for the bill. The measure passed with the votes of 29 Democratic senators and four Republican senators.

The suit also calls into question private meetings held by Cuomo and Senate Republicans at the governor's mansion in Albany. It also said that the Senate illegally shut down hallways in the Capitol, blocking access to rank-and-file senators by gay-marriage opponents and that Republican senators turned off their cell phones so lobbyists could not reach them on the controversial bill. It called the actions "unprecedented."

The suit said Cuomo illegally provided a "message of necessity" for the bill's passage on the last night of the legislative session. The plaintiffs claim that no emergency existed and that the bill should have gone through the normal, three-day period before going to the floor vote.

Ignoring the usual Senate rules, the lawsuit contends, "deprived citizens, through their elected officials, the opportunity to participate in the deliberative process of the [gay-marriage] act."

A spokeswoman for Schneiderman declined to comment.

Joshua Vlasto, a Cuomo spokesman, dismissed the lawsuit's claims. "The plaintiffs lack a basic understanding of the laws of the State of New York. The suit is without merit," he said.

Gay-rights groups were unfazed by the suit. "It's ironic that an organization that used to cry judicial activism is now grasping at straws and filing a lawsuit," said Ross Levi, executive director of Empire State Pride Agenda, which lobbied for the vote.

Levi said the state's highest court already ruled that the gay-marriage issue was one for the Legislature to decide, which it did after polls showed 58 percent of the state's voters backed the marriage-equality measure.

The case is far from an easy one. Courts in New York traditionally have avoided getting involved in the business of the Legislature, often arguing that it is up to that branch of government to set its own rules.

Joining McGuire as plaintiffs are the Rev. Duane Motley, the senior lobbyist with McGuire's group, and Nathaniel Leiter, executive director of Torah Jews for Decency, an Orthodox group.

tprecious@buffnews.comnull