Posted on 11/29/2004 7:54:58 AM PST by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday sidestepped a dispute over gay marriages, rejecting a challenge to the nation’s only law sanctioning such unions.
Justices had been asked by conservative groups to overturn the year-old decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court legalizing gay marriage. They declined, without comment.
In the past year, at least 3,000 gay Massachusetts couples have wed, although voters may have a chance next year to change the state constitution to permit civil union benefits to same-sex couples, but not the institution of marriage.
Critics of the November 2003 ruling by the highest court in Massachusetts argue that it violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of a republican form of government in each state. They lost at the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.
Their attorney, Mathew Staver, said in a Supreme Court filing that the Constitution should “protect the citizens of Massachusetts from their own state supreme court’s usurpation of power.” Federal courts, he said, should defend people’s right “to live in a republican form of government free from tyranny, whether that comes at the barrel of a gun or by the decree of a court.”
Merita Hopkins, a city attorney in Boston, had told justices in court papers that the people who filed the suit have not shown they suffered an injury and could not bring a challenge to the Supreme Court. “Deeply felt interest in the outcome of a case does not constitute an actual injury,” she said.
Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly told justices that voters can overrule the Supreme Court by adopting a constitutional amendment.
The lawsuit was filed by the Florida-based Liberty Counsel on behalf of Robert Largess, the vice president of the Catholic Action League, and 11 state lawmakers.
The conservative law group had persuaded the Supreme Court in October to consider another high profile issue, the constitutionality of Ten Commandments displays on government property. The court agreed to look at that church-state issue before Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. He is working from home while receiving chemotherapy and radiation and will miss court sessions for the next two weeks.
State legislators will decide whether to put the issue before Massachusetts voters in November 2006. Voters in 11 states approved constitutional amendments banning gay marriage in November elections.
President Bush has promised to make a federal anti-gay marriage amendment a priority of his second term.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court narrowly ruled that gays and lesbians had a right under the state constitution to wed. The nation’s high court had stayed out of the Massachusetts fight on a previous occasion. Last May, justices refused to intervene and block clerks from issuing the first marriage licenses.
Originally published on November 29, 2004
I just read the post above your reply to me, and I see I explained to you stuff you already understood. My apologies.
This would not have been a ruling on homosexual marriage. It would have been a ruling on the restraints of government, specifically the judicial branch of government. They don't get to do the legislating. That's all this was about.
Nice bit of journalism here.
The actual news is that the SCOTUS won't hear the case, but this rag already jumped to the conclusion that had they heard it, they would have overturned the Massachusetts SCOTUS.
Yeah, but I enjoyed reading your post anyway. You're exactly right.
BINGO!
Don't forget who we're talking about right now. It would not be a stretch of the imagination to see this Court simply decide to rule that homosexual marriage is legal in all 50 states. We know there are already enough Justices on the Court to do just that. Better to keep the issue out of the hands of the 6 black robed tyrants that made sodomy a "right".
My Headline:
SCOTUS DECLINES TO ACCEPT GAY MARRIAGE POLICY:
Freepers Old Professer & The Ghost of FReepers Past Vow To Fight Decision
This first sentence is misleading; there is no "law" or act that sanctions homosexual or Lesbian marriage. There is an state supreme court "opinion" that the state constitution (by not expressly forbidding gay unions) cannot deny homosexuals and Lesbians the opportunity to marry. It infuriates me when "journalists" invest court opinions with the same authority and legitimacy as (properly construed) legislative acts.
Let the states decide, but it will ultimately become a federal issue.
I say let the American people decide.
Its rather amusing that you cite the constitution, yet completely ignore the 11th amendment, which is suppose to prohibit states from being sued in federal court.
Which is why the POTUS must get the original amendment passed, forbidding courts to rule where the legislature and the people clearly have the power.
Shouldn't have to be that way, however, Judges are overstepping the separation of powers, put in place as a system of checks and balances, carefully crafted to prevent this kind of tyranny
Yes indeed. What it will allow is some AIDs infested person to marry a young stud while on his deathbed and allow the young stud to obtain federal benefits for the rest of his life.
Just don't bring it here. Michiganders spoke on it.
You're right. The people of Massachusetts had no say in this. Maggie Marshall (champion of the gay lesbian alliance)and her supreme court crew dictated this. The politicians on Beacon Hill don't have the backbone to bring the real issues to a vote. We can thank Maggie for bringing this to a head. It actually helped W get elected.
Just wait until the issue of gay divorce court starts rearing it's head. Gay marriage, the joke that it is, will eventually end up there. These sexually deviant lust based marriages don't last long. I'm sure they will be demanding special government support for their "uniqueness" before long as well, further bankrupting programs designed for the purpose of familly. The government trough can only feed so many.
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