Wave Maker: The Convenient Constitution

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Tuesday, January 02, 2007

The Convenient Constitution

Well now we've got something to be outraged about.

Deval Patrick hasn't even been sworn in yet, and he's advocating that the Constitutional Convention violate the law.

Gov.-elect Deval Patrick urged legislators today to end debate on a ballot initiative seeking to ban gay marriage by whatever means they deem appropriate, saying the matter involves a question of minority rights that should not be put to a popular vote.

“It is a terrible precedent for us to use the ballot initiative petition to insert discrimination into the Constitution,” Patrick told reporters after a private meeting with House Speaker Sal DiMasi, a leading opponent of the proposed ban....

Patrick said he does not believe lawmakers must vote on the question directly, even after a Supreme Judicial Court ruled last week that they have a constitutional obligation to do so.

“I think there is more than one constitutional question before us,” he said. “There is a constitutional issue of whether under the equal protection clause the court gets final word about the rights and the equality of a minority.”

Wow. That's some stunning logic coming from such a smart guy.

There is only one constitutional question. Whether the legislators have a constitutional duty to vote. The SJC unanimously said they did. That was their "final word."

And the Court's "final word" on gay marriage was interpreting the language of the original state constituion, which is, by its terms, subject to change by the citizens. The SJC did not rule on the ultimate Big "C" constitutionality of a gay marriage ban.

So here is our very first indication that Patrick is no centrist but a committed liberal ideologue to whom the means justify the end.

Shame on him.

UPDATE: Well will wonders never cease. The conscience-wracked legislature appears to have ignored the entreaty of the Governor-elect and actually done their duty. Hats off to them.

Posted by: Wave Maker / 1:44 PM/ |