Mitt 'n' marriage.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)

In light of John J. Miller's article on Mitt Romney ("Matinee Mitt," June 20), I believe it is appropriate to recognize that, in his capacity as head of the executive branch of Massachusetts, Romney seems to be enforcing a non-existent same-sex-marriage law. If this is true, Romney is at least as responsible for the existence of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts as chief justice Margaret Marshall of the supreme judicial court.

As most are aware, the Goodridge decision that Marshall wrote announced a requirement for same-sex marriage. What many do not know is that the Goodridge decision did not actually create same-sex marriage. To the contrary, Justice Marshall left the task of reforming the law to the appropriate branch of government: the legislature. She merely said that the absence of same-sex marriage violated the Massachusetts constitution.

At the outset of the Goodridge decision, Marshall correctly declined to interpret the law to provide explicitly for same-sex marriage. But she then considered the constitutionality of the absence of same-sex marriage. In a feat of seemingly impossible proportions, the absence itself was deemed unconstitutional. She ordered that the decision be delayed for 180 days--allowing the legislature sufficient time to provide for same-sex marriage (because it was absent) and thereby to avoid a constitutional impasse. The court later stated that ...