Massachusetts Court Clears Way to Ban Same-Sex Marriage
BOSTON, July 10 -- The same court that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize same-sex marriage ruled Monday that the state legislature and voters can decide whether to ban such unions in the future through a constitutional amendment.
Supporters of gay rights tried to block the proposal by arguing in a lawsuit that the state constitution bars any citizen-initiated amendment that seeks to reverse a judicial ruling.
The Supreme Judicial Court rejected that argument, ruling unanimously that the measure is not a reversal of its earlier ruling legalizing same-sex marriage because it would leave intact the marriages of same-sex couples who already had wed.
The state legislature will now take up the question in a constitutional convention Wednesday. Two consecutive legislative sessions have to approve the proposal, which would restrict marriage to between one man and one woman, before it...
"BOSTON, July 10 -- The same court that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize same-sex marriage ruled Monday that the state legislature and voters can decide whether to ban such unions in the future through a constitutional amendment."
Sounds good, and hopefully the lawmakers and people will do so. But the court, in any event, doesn't have the authority to rule what the legislature and voters can decide by way of constitutional amendment. They already have that right. That's one way courts are restrained from excess. Constitutional amendments bypass court decrees, they are not granted permission to exist by court rulings.
THERE IS GREAT JOY IN HEAVEN RIGHT NOW AMONG THE ENGLISH-AMERICAN PILGRIM & PURITAN FOREFATHERS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
THERE IS ALSO GREAT JOY IN HEAVEN IN GENERAL:
AND GREAT MISERY AND DEFEAT IN HELL ITSELF. . . . . .
I would think that the state and people of Massachusetts could redefine the legal benefits to exclude strange combinations even of those that went before the correction was done.
http://www.ihcc.org/images/booklets/pdf/L118.pdf
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