Supreme Court rejects gay marriage block

PlanetOut Network
Friday, May 14, 2004 / 04:56 PM

Today's Headlines
Supreme Court rejects gay marriage block

The U.S. Supreme Court turned down without comment a last-minute bid to block Massachusetts from giving marriage licenses to same-sex couples next week.

The conservative groups who requested the emergency stay appealed to the high court after being rejected earlier in the day by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They were appealing a lower court decision made a day earlier.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro ruled Thursday that the state's Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) did not overstep its bounds in allowing same-sex couples to marry. According to the SJC's historic ruling in November, forbidding marriage to gay couples violates the principles of equality in the state Constitution.

The SJC "has the authority to interpret, and reinterpret if necessary, the term marriage as it appears in the Massachusetts Constitution," Tauro wrote.

Judge Tauro's decision came three days after the conservative plaintiffs -- the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, the Catholic Action League and other conservative groups -- filed the hasty lawsuit.

Their lawyer, Mathew Staver, argued that the federal courts must step in to prevent a "constitutional train wreck" in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts will begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Monday. Gay groups throughout the state, and supporters in cities like Washington and San Francisco, are planning large parties to celebrate the historic day.

Massachusetts county clerks have been preparing for the expected onslaught of eager couples, and uncertainty still exists about whether couples from other states can get marriage licenses. This week Provincetown said it will not deny marriage licenses to out-of-state couples, defying Gov. Mitt Romney's directive that clerks obey an obscure 1913 law that prevents marriage to couples whose home states would consider the union illegal. Boston, on the other hand, announced it will abide by Romney's order.

Last month Romney notified the attorneys general of the other 49 U.S. states and asked them to confirm the illegality of same-sex marriages in their states. According to news reports, not all states responded, or responded affirmatively.

On Friday, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sent Romney a copy of his March 3 opinion, which suggests that New York law would honor same-sex marriages that are legally performed elsewhere, such as in Canada.

"Attorney General Spitzer, in reiterating his March 3rd opinion, was not willing to let Gov. Romney hide behind New York law in order to discriminate against our families," said Ross Levi, an attorney with the Empire State Pride Agenda, New York's largest GLBT rights group.