MassResistance had an interesting day yesterday (4-12-05) at the Judiciary Committee hearing on the three bills submitted by Article 8 Alliance and their sponsor, Rep. Emile Goguen.
Bill H652 is the "Bill of Address", calling for removal of the four justices of the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court (who ruled that John Adams really wanted men to be able to marry each other).
Bill H653 is would define marriage as one man + one woman without allowing civil unions. (How odd... It appears the House Clerk has made an error, and listed it as a proposed Constitutional amendment! Since Article 8 is opposed to the concept of amending the Constitution in this way, it's hard to understand how this happened...)
Bill H654 points out that "gay marriage" is still not legal! We got a copy of the testimony on 654 from the citizen behind this bill, and reprint it here:
I ask the Committee to pay special attention to Bill H654, which I asked Rep. Goguen to file. This bill would essentially nullify the so-called "marriages" of homosexual couples which have taken place since May 17, 2004, when the Goodridge ruling went into effect.
NOTE THAT LANGUAGE: "when the Court ruling went into effect"! I remind the Committee that the Legislature never did anything to comply with this illegitimate ruling (which supposedly legalized homosexual marriage) -- nor should they have. The Court had no authority to speak on marriage. Only the Legislature and Governor have authority in this area, according to our Massachusetts Constitution.
The Legislature never did bring Massachusetts statutes into line with this ruling. "Gender-neutral" language to amend existing marriage statues never was passed. Therefore, all so-called "marriages" between homosexual couples which have taken place since May 17, 2004 are without statutory basis, and should be considered null and void.
I am not a Constitutional lawyer. But it should be apparent to anyone with common sense that the Legislature is simply avoiding its Constitutional responsibility in this area, and allowing the Supreme Judicial majority to run right over them.
We are living in a lawless state, where the Constitution is ignored, where our legislative leadership pretends things are real when they are not. Truly, here in Massachusetts, the Emperor has no clothes! But you are all pretending she does.
I ask you to help correct this situation, and to send Bills 652, 653, and 654 on to the floor for a full debate.
