ToonArmyIsComing
Joined: 15 Feb 2005
Posts: 5888
Location: Ontario
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| Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 2:09 am Post subject: Gay Marriage Lawsuit!!! |
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Wow, this could be a very important victory for the gay couples if they manage to win the court case. What do you think of this?
Quote: Mass. Court Hears Gay Marriage Lawsuit
By DENISE LAVOIE
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 6, 2005; 2:49 PM
BOSTON -- In a case closely watched across the country, the court that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize gay marriage was asked Thursday to decide whether same-sex couples from out-of-state can tie the knot here, too.
At issue before Massachusetts' highest court was a 1913 state law that says that out-of-state couples cannot get married in Massachusetts if their home states do not recognize such unions. Republican Gov. Mitt Romney has invoked the law to prevent out-of-state gay couples from getting married here.
If the Supreme Judicial Court strikes down the 92-year-old, same-sex couples from across the country could come here to wed and then demand marriage rights at home.
Eight gay couples from surrounding states, all of whom were denied marriage licenses in Massachusetts, are challenging the law.
Massachusetts last year became the first state to allow same-sex marriage. Forty-one other states have passed laws or constitutional amendments banning it.
Michele Granda, a gay-rights lawyer for the couples, argued before the high court Thursday that the 1913 law "sat on the shelf" unused for decades until it was "dusted off" by the governor.
Granda said the high court, in its historic ruling legalizing gay marriage, found that under the Massachusetts Constitution, same-sex couples had the same right to marry as heterosexual couples.
"Nothing in (that ruling) says that our officials can discriminate simply because officials in other states discriminate," Granda told the six-judge panel.
Attorneys for the state argued that the law is being enforced in an evenhanded way for both heterosexual and same-sex couples.
Assistant Attorney General Peter Sacks said Massachusetts risks a "backlash" if it flouts the laws of others states by marrying gay couples from states that prohibit it. "We've got respect for other states' laws," he said.
The high court is expected to issue a ruling in the next few months.
The eight couples who sued are from Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and New York. They include Sandi and Bobbi Cote-Whitacre of Essex Junction, Vt., who have a recognized civil union in their home state but want to marry.
"The civil union gave us state benefits, but we grew up believing that you find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with and you get married," Sandi said. "In reality, after 38 years, I'm her wife and she's mine. We want the document."
After same-sex marriage became legal in May 2004, Romney ordered city and town clerks to enforce the 1913 law and wrote to every other governor in the nation that out-of-state gay couples would not be allowed to marry in Massachusetts. A few communities initially defied the governor but eventually complied.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/06/AR2005100600183_pf.html |
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