Liberty Counsel Successfully Files Appeal Against Massachusetts

The Liberty Counsel, on behalf of several pro-family groups and 11 legislators successfully asked the Massachusetts appeals court to put an end to the state’s Supreme Court decision that legalized gay “marriage” in the state last month, on Monday, June 7, 2004.

Mathew Staver, head of the Liberty Counsel, told the appeals court that the Supreme Judicial Court had overstepped its authority by changing the definition of marriage.

"The SJC impermissibly amended the constitution's definition of marriage, which is universally recognized as the union of a man and a woman," Staver told three appeals judges. "It has violated the separation of powers."

Staver argued that the legislature’s powers were undercut by the Court’s Nov. 18 decision, which lifted the state ban on gay “marriage.”

Democratic state Rep. Philip Travis, one of those represented in the case, said, “We never gave them the authority to redefine marriage.”

Earlier in the year, Massachusetts lawmakers voted on a ban to gay “marriage.” However, because the next legislature has to pass the ban before the voters can see it on the ballot, the earliest the gay “marriages” can be halted is in 2006.

Should Staver succeed in his case, the gay “marriages” the licensing would stop for the two-year time until the public vote in two years.

Staver argued that the Supreme Court's decision "impinges on the right of the people to vote in this case. In the meantime there is injury occurring every single day."