Sunday, November 19, 2006
Next Up: Slavery!
Mass. Governor Wants Anti-Miscegenation Vote
By Nathan Ale, Amalgamated Press Writer
November 19, 2006 | BOSTON -- Gov. Mitt Romney said Sunday he would ask the state's highest court to order an anti-miscegenation amendment question onto the ballot if legislators fail to vote on the matter when they reconvene in January.
Romney said he would file a legal action this week asking a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to direct the secretary of state to place the question on the ballot if lawmakers don't vote directly on the question on Jan. 2, the final day of the session.
Romney, an opponent of mixed-race marriages who decided not to seek re-election as he considers running for president, made his announcement to the cheers of hundreds of mixed-race marriage opponents at a rally on the Statehouse steps.
People in favor of mixed-race marriages staged a protest across the street.
The Massachusetss Supreme Court ruled in November 1913 that mixed-race marriages were legal. Since then, more than 8,000 mixed-race couples have married in the state.
More than 170,000 people had signed a petition in support of the ballot question, which would define marriage as between one white male and one white female only.
Romney has criticized lawmakers since they refused earlier this month to take up the question during a joint session, voting instead to recess until Jan. 2 and all but killing the measure.
"A decision not to vote is a decision not to usurp the Constitution, to abandon mob rule and substitute what this nation's founders called "The Rule of Law", that is, the protection the Constitution provides the people," Romney said earlier. "The issue now before us is not whether people of mixed race should marry. The issue before us today is whether I can force 109 legislators to put the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution up for popular vote."
By Nathan Ale, Amalgamated Press Writer
November 19, 2006 | BOSTON -- Gov. Mitt Romney said Sunday he would ask the state's highest court to order an anti-miscegenation amendment question onto the ballot if legislators fail to vote on the matter when they reconvene in January.
Romney said he would file a legal action this week asking a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to direct the secretary of state to place the question on the ballot if lawmakers don't vote directly on the question on Jan. 2, the final day of the session.
Romney, an opponent of mixed-race marriages who decided not to seek re-election as he considers running for president, made his announcement to the cheers of hundreds of mixed-race marriage opponents at a rally on the Statehouse steps.
People in favor of mixed-race marriages staged a protest across the street.
The Massachusetss Supreme Court ruled in November 1913 that mixed-race marriages were legal. Since then, more than 8,000 mixed-race couples have married in the state.
More than 170,000 people had signed a petition in support of the ballot question, which would define marriage as between one white male and one white female only.
Romney has criticized lawmakers since they refused earlier this month to take up the question during a joint session, voting instead to recess until Jan. 2 and all but killing the measure.
"A decision not to vote is a decision not to usurp the Constitution, to abandon mob rule and substitute what this nation's founders called "The Rule of Law", that is, the protection the Constitution provides the people," Romney said earlier. "The issue now before us is not whether people of mixed race should marry. The issue before us today is whether I can force 109 legislators to put the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution up for popular vote."
