Patrick on today's SJC ruling
Here's the response from the Patrick camp. Note the simultaneous jab at Romney and Reilly.
Given his track record on gay marriage, it'll be very, very interesting
to see how the AG handles this one. If I were a Reilly adviser, I'd
urge him to say nothing whatsoever.
STATEMENT FROM DEVAL PATRICK ON TODAY'S SJC DECISION ON THE 1913 LAW
BOSTON—Thursday,
March 30, 2006 — The statement below is in response to today's decision
by the Supreme Judicial Court
to uphold Governor Mitt Romney's and Attorney General Tom Reilly's invocation
of the 1913 law:
"I'm disappointed by today’s SJC decision. Although it
leaves the door ajar for marriage equality for couples from other states, it
adds new layers of process and bureaucracy to the exercise of those
rights. That costs us all in money and time spent on an issue we are all
ready to move beyond.
"We have Tom Reilly and Mitt Romney to thank for prolonging
this debate. The SJC got it right in Goodrich, by affirming the
bedrock principle that people come before their government as equals. In
the two years since, the sky has not fallen. Yet Reilly and Romney
revived this 1913 law to torpedo those rights. It's a glaring example of
their bad leadership.
"Gay men and lesbians have married in Massachusetts,
accepted the rights and the responsibilities of marriage, and moved on with
their lives out in the open. The rest of us ought to try doing the same."