Massachusetts: gay marriage alert!

[cos]

There are a bunch of scary anti-gay marriage bills being considered, including one that would cancel all the marriages of same-sex couples already performed, and another that would remove the judges who voted for it. There are also a few good bills, like one that would repeal the 1913 law that makes it harder for out of state couples to get married in MA. The public hearing on all of these bills is tomorrow afternoon!

I posted the details here. If you're near Boston and care about this, please read that post and go to the hearing if you can. (I will unfortunately have to miss it, I'm in western MA and have a meetup to run in Amherst tomorrow evening)

Comments

[kirin]

*blink*
I can't even being to imagine how *anyone* could imagine that a law to remove certain judges would be remotely constitutional.

But I suppose that's probably not the point, is it?

[cos]

That bill will not pass, but it is constitutional. Massachusetts does have a process for impeaching judges, though it's not called "impeachment". I forget what the name for it is, but whatever it's called, that's what this bill is doing. If it passes, it would authorize the governor to remove those judges.

[kirin]

Oh. Weird.

I'm not surprised that there's a method for "impeaching" judges, but I'm surprised that the way it gets done is to pass a specific law.

Or is it not that the law would directly remove the judges, but that it would add to what is "impeachable", on the expectation that the governor would then go ahead and remove them?

Even then, it seems utterly bizarre that you could make a particular *ruling* into an "impeachable" offense.

But I obviously don't know much of anything about the rules involved here.

[cos]

Impeachment is always a political process, whatever the rules say are "valid" reasons for doing it. Just compare Clinton and Bush :/

I remembered the name: it's a "Bill of Address". The process is that the bill of address has to be passed by both houses, then IIRC the governor can send it to the governor's council (the body that approved judicial nominations in MA), and if they pass it too, the judges are removed. So, it requires that the house, senate, governor, and council, all approve it. Definitely a long shot even in much more favorable circumstances. This one won't get to Romney.