Massachusetts High Court Weighs Gay Marriage Ruling

[Nicholas_J]

Massachusetts High Court Weighs Gay Marriage Ruling

By Kavan Peterson, Staff Writer
Stateline.org
July 21, 2003


Courts Favor Gay Rights, Lawmakers Opposed

Massachusetts could become the first state in the country to sanction same-sex marriage, but its state court system is not the first to consider the issue.

The Vermont Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that denying marriage benefits to same-sex couples was unconstitutional, and ordered the legislature to provide gay and lesbian couples the same marriage privileges granted to heterosexual couples. But the court left open the question of whether there was a way to provide equal protections and benefits without marriage itself, and the legislature opted to create a separate legal partnership for homosexuals called “civil unions.”

“Most legal scholars who have looked at Massachusetts’ supreme court justices are concerned that they are going to rule against the will of the people and endorse same-sex marriage,” Genevieve Wood, a vice president of the Family Research Council (FRC), a Washington, D.C. based advocacy group that opposes same-sex marriage, told Stateline.org.

http://www.stateline.org/story.do?storyId=316665

The Supreme Juducial Court sat on reviewing the case for longer than the 130 days, indicatin that the Supreme Court is not going to interfere. And Scalia blames the Texas decision, and The Massachussets Court waiting until after that decision and the review for the likelihood that the court will declare gay marriage a constitutional right in Masschussetts. This could set a new precedent for overturning DOMA.

[dsc]

1. While I would love the decision

to favor gay marriage it won't act as a precedent to end DOMA. State Supreme Court decisions can't act as precedents for Federal Supreme Court ones. This case may provide an impetus for a legal challenge (if they find for marriage it probably will) but it won't provide a precedent.