BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court today upheld a law prohibiting out-of-state couples from marrying in the commonwealth if their marriage would be prohibited in their home states. Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund had filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case in defense of the law.
“Marriage has become an extremely emotional issue because political special interests are trying to reduce it to nothing more than a benefits system for any two people who say they’re in love. Allowing same-sex couples from anywhere to marry in Massachusetts would have furthered this destructive agenda back in their own states,” said Glen Lavy, senior vice president of ADF’s Marriage Litigation Center. “The trial judge properly recognized that Massachusetts has no interest in regulating relationships from other states, and ADF is pleased that the Supreme Judicial Court agreed.”
The lawsuit was filed by out-of-state same-sex couples seeking to have the 1913 law thrown out. Had the law been declared unconstitutional, out-of-state same-sex couples may have been allowed to marry in Massachusetts with the result that many could have attempted to get their home states to recognize their “marriages.”
“This case has important implications for the rest of the country with regard to defending marriage against activists who are attempting to destroy it,” Lavy said. “Legally, marriage is designed to protect children. The state’s primary interest in licensing marriage is to encourage parents to get married and raise their children together. Massachusetts’ recognition of same-sex ‘marriage’ already undermines this essential principle; allowing couples prohibited from marrying in their own states to marry in the commonwealth would only have exacerbated the problem.”
The ruling today came in the case
Cote-Whitacre v. Department of Health. In a separate but related case,
Flynn v. Johnstone, ADF attorneys represent Raymond L. Flynn, former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican and mayor of Boston from 1984 to 1993, and Thomas A. Shields, a North Shore businessman. In that case, the two men sued to stop some town and city clerks from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in violation of the 1913 law.
For more information on the battle to protect marriage, visit
www.domawatch.org.
ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
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