Detroit Free Press

Gay marriages go forward

Supreme Court won't block Massachusetts

May 15, 2004

FREE PRESS NEWS SERVICES

BOSTON -- The Supreme Court refused Friday to block the nation's first state-sanctioned gay marriages from taking place next week.

Without comment, the court declined to intervene and block clerks from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples in Massachusetts. That state's highest court ruled in November that the state Constitution allows gay couples to marry. The marriages are to start Monday.

The U.S. Supreme Court's move, on an emergency appeal filed Friday by gay marriage opponents, does not address the merits of the claim that the state Supreme Judicial Court overstepped its bounds with the landmark decision.

A stay had been sought by a coalition of state lawmakers and conservative activists.

A federal judge ruled against them on Thursday. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision on Friday, setting up the Supreme Court appeal. The 1st Circuit Court agreed to hear arguments on the request to bar same-sex unions in June, after several weeks of legal gay marriages.

The stay request had been filed with Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who handles appeals from the region. He referred the matter to the full nine-member court.

Mathew Staver, general counsel of the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which sought the stay, said he was disappointed by the ruling. He is still looking forward to arguing the case next month before the federal appeals court.

He said he wanted the courts to consider whether the Massachusetts judges improperly redefined marriage -- a task for the legislature, he argued.

Mary Bonauto, the lead attorney for the seven same-sex couples who sued the state for the right to marry, said she was relieved, saying "this has always been a case where people unhappy with the court ruling were trying to dress it up in a federal constitutional claim that Massachusetts was a tyranny."