Case
On April 11, 2001, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) sued the Massachusetts Department of Health in Superior Court on behalf of seven same-sex couples, all residents of Massachusetts, who had been denied marriage licenses in March and April 2001. All the plaintiffs had been in long-term relationships with their partners and had several children. The Department's responsibilities included setting policies under which city and town clerks issue marriage licenses. The Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the Department on May 7, 2002, and the plaintiffs appealed directly to the Supreme Judicial Court.
Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly argued in his brief that the Court should defer to the Legislature's judgment of "the broader public interest" and recognize "same-sex couples cannot procreate on their own and therefore cannot accomplish the 'main object'...of marriage as historically understood."
Read more about this topic: Goodridge V. Department Of Public Health
Famous quotes containing the word case:
“There are a great many of these accusers, and they have been accusing me now for a great many years, and what is more, they approached you at the most impressionable age, when some of you were children or adolescents; and literally won their case by default, because there was no one to defend me.”
—Socrates (469–399 B.C.)
“Massachusetts sat waiting Mr. Loring’s decision.... It was really the trial of Massachusetts. Every moment that she hesitated to set this man free, every moment that she now hesitates to atone for her crime, she is convicted. The commissioner on her case is God; not Edward G. God, but simply God.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I am absurdly fearful about this voyage. Various little omens have combined to give me a dark feeling.... Perhaps we shall live to laugh at these. But in case of mishap I should perish with my husband and child, perhaps to be transferred to some happier state.”
—Margaret Fuller (1810–1850)