Two of the most important principles of legitimate government are democracy and the rule of law. The legislature of the state of Massachusetts has shown utter contempt for both in order to save legalized gay marriage. Here is Hadley Arkes:
The [Mass. State] constitution provides that a proposal to amend the document “shall … be laid before a joint session of the two houses,” and shall be voted upon in the form in which it was introduced, unless such amendment is amended by vote of three-fourths of the members voting thereon in joint session, which vote shall be taken by call of the yeas and nays if called for by any member."
Citizens of Massachusetts had collected more than enough signatures on a petition to amend the state’s constitution — in this case, an amendment to overturn the recent, controversial ruling of the Supreme Judicial Court in installing same-sex marriage. The amendment would mainly restore the old understanding that the commonwealth “shall define marriage only as the union of one man and one woman.” Under the constitution, the legislature is obliged to vote by a roll call on a petition properly vetted, as this one was by the attorney general. If the proposal gained at least one quarter of the votes in the legislature — and this proposal surely would have — it would be advanced in a process that could carry over eventually to place the proposal on a ballot, where it would be voted on by the people of Massachusetts. But the legislature performed a finesse: It simply recessed without voting on the petition. If it had adjourned, the governor, Mitt Romney could have called it back into session, where it would have been obliged to vote.
The State Supreme Court of Massachusetts, the same one that created by situation by "finding" a hitherto non-existent right to gay marriage in the existing state constitution, has spoken on the legislature's behavior. On the one hand, the Court has no legal remedy to order: it cannot force the legislature to do its duty under the constitution. On the other hand:
Without a shading of doubt, the court declared that the legislature had failed to meet its plainest duties under the constitution.
The legislature of Massachusetts have every right to want to establish homosexual marriage. It has shown that, in pursuit of that end, it is utterly without principle.
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