JURIST - Paper Chase: STATE COURTS - MA high court rules for same-sex marriage

In Wednesday's state courts news, and following up on a story reported earlier on JURIST'S Paper Chase, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has issued an advisory opinion requested by the legislature for clarification on a civil unions bill, ruling that anything other than the right to marry for same-sex couples is discriminatory and unconstitutional. Seven couples filed suit in 2001, claiming that the bar on same-sex marriage deprives those couples of an "intrinsic human experience" and violated their constitutional rights. The Court ruled 4-3 last November that the legislature had six months to change the law to allow same-sex couples their constitutional right to marry. The legislature, however, asked for guidance as to whether this constituted full marriage, or could be construed to mean a "Vermont-style" same-sex union, a parallel institution with similar rights as marriage. Read the opinion here.

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