Second of Five House Judiciary Subcommittee Hearings Assessing Legal Threats to Marriage and Proposals to Protect Marriage

Summary

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-- The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled in Goodridge in November, 2003 that Massachusetts must recognize same- sex marriage. The SJC asserted that the three reasons the Commonwealth of Massachusetts cited for giving preferred status to heterosexual marriage -- promoting procreation, encouraging the raising of children in two-parent biological families, and conserving limited state resources -- were wholly irrational and therefore beyond the bounds of law.

-- While the SJC repeatedly cites in its decision the "the Massachusetts Constitution," nowhere in the Goodridge decision did the court state precisely which provisions of the Massachusetts Constitution had been violated by the state's traditional marriage policy. Instead, the Massachusetts court expansively cited the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lawrence vs. Texas as establishing a broad right of personal autonomy and failed to acknowledge any of the differences between laws regulating private sexual behavior and laws establishing public family relationships.

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Extract

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Second of Five House Judiciary Subcommittee Hearings Assessing Legal Threats to Marriage and Proposals to Protect Marriage

-- Recent data from the Netherland...

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