MA highest court extends deadline on nonresident gay marriage ruling

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(Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC)) extends deadline on nonresident gay marriage ruling

Boston Globe, February 15, 2006

BOSTON -- The state's highest court(, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC)) has waived a self-imposed deadline for ruling whether gay couples from other states can legally marry in Massachusetts. (The SJC case is Cote-Whitacre v. Department of Public Health (Suffolk Law School, Boston, SJC oral argument project))


The Supreme Judicial Court notified lawyers on Feb. 9 that it would not issue a decision within the 130-day window after oral arguments on Oct. 6, according to the court's Web site. The move was reported by The Republican of Springfield (, Massachusetts) in a story Wednesday(, February 15, 2006).

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Lawyers warned not to read anything into the delay. "It could be due to a multiplicity of issues, including the court's own backlog," Mark D. Mason, president-elect of the Massachusetts Bar Association, told The Republican.

Eight gay couples from surrounding states, all of whom were denied marriage licenses in Massachusetts, are challenging a 1913 law that forbids nonresidents from marrying here if their marriages would not be valid in their home states.

If the Supreme Judicial Court strikes down the law, same-sex couples from across the country could come to Massachusetts to wed and demand marriage rights at home.

. . . more at . . . http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/15/high_court_extends_deadline_on_nonresident_gay_marriage_ruling
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See also: The Republican of Springfield (online edition), Massachusetts, Wednesday, February 15, 2006, "SJC misses date on gay marriages," by Dan Ring, http://www.masslive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-0/1139993614228470.xml&coll=1

The Supreme Judicial Court's online case docket of Cote-Whitacre #SJC-09436 http://www.ma-appellatecourts.org/display_docket.php?dno=SJC-09436 (Go to the bottom of the SJC's webpage to view reference to this its most recent order, "paper #49".)
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