[JURIST] Judge Thomas E. Connolly of the Massachusetts Suffolk County Superior Court has ruled [judgment, PDF] that the marriages of more than 170 same-sex couples from New York who married in Massachusetts before the New York Court of Appeals upheld a ban on New York same-sex marriage [JURIST report] on July 6, 2006, are valid because a 1913 Massachusetts statute [text] only forbids the marriage of couples who are "expressly prohibited" from marrying in their home states, AP reported Wednesday. The Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) [advocacy website; press release] welcomed the May 10 ruling, describing it as having "[lifted] a legal cloud from these marriages."

In September of last year, Connolly ruled [opinion, PDF] that Massachusetts must allow same-sex couples from Rhode Island to marry [JURIST report] because Rhode Island did not expressly prohibit same-sex marriages [JURIST news archive]. Massachusetts became the first US state to legalize same-sex marriage [JURIST report] in 2003. In April, New York governor Eliot Spitzer introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in New York [JURIST report]. AP has more.