BREAKING NEWS ~ Massachusetts high court bars same-sex marriage for non-residents News
BREAKING NEWS ~ Massachusetts high court bars same-sex marriage for non-residents

[JURIST] AP is reporting that the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts [official website] ruled Thursday that same-sex couples from outside of Massachusetts cannot marry in the state. Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] with the state high court's 2003 decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health [text; JURIST report].

At issue in the current case [JURIST report] was whether a 1913 law [text], which prohibits out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if their home states do not recognize the union, comports with the Massachusetts constitution [text]. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has used the law, which had otherwise been rarely invoked, to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples from nearby states. AP has more.

10:44 AM ET – Read the court's decision [PDF text] in Cote-Whitacre v. Department of Public Health.

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