MASS. GOVERNOR VS. CAPE TOWN: From the Boston Globe

Governor Mitt Romney's top spokesman yesterday equated Provincetown's plans to marry out-of-state gay couples with marrying children, as rhetoric heated up over Romney's threat to take legal action if the town issues marriage licenses to gays who don't plan to live in Massachusetts.

"What next, is Provincetown going to start marrying 10-year-olds in violation of the law?" Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said in an e-mail response to a reporter's questions about Romney's legal strategy yesterday. "Are they going to refuse to enforce the drug laws? Will they ignore the gun laws, too?"

"The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has an interest in making sure the laws are enforced evenly, not selectively," he added. "And everyone, especially spouses and their children, has an interest in making sure marriage in Massachusetts is worth more than the paper it's printed on."

The governor's threat is the latest in a series of statements from him and his staff on his interpreta tion of a 1913 law that he says bars out-of-state gay couples from marrying in Massachusetts. Last week, his top lawyer had told city and town clerks they could rely on applicants' sworn oaths, without requiring documentation of residency, as assurance that the couples comply with state law.

Romney faces increasing resistance statewide from city and town clerks, who are refusing to follow the governor's demands that they deny marriage licenses to out-of-state same-sex couples after gay unions become legal next week. On Monday, the Provincetown board of selectmen voted to instruct the town clerk to grant marriage licenses to gay couples who live outside of Massachusetts and have no intention of moving here. The clerk should ask for a sworn affidavit that the couple know of no impediment to their marriage in their home state.

After the selectmen's vote, the governor suggested that clerks could face serious legal consequences if they did not follow the law. "I expect local officials to follow this law regardless of their personal views," Romney said in a statement. "If they choose to break the law, we will take appropriate enforcement action, refuse to recognize those marriages, and inform the parties that the marriage is null and void."

Despite the governor's threat of legal action, town clerks in Worcester and several other cities yesterday joined with selectmen in Provincetown in saying they would resist his demands. ...

Meanwhile yesterday, another legal battle over gay marriage was derailed when former Boston mayor and Vatican ambassador Raymond L. Flynn's appeal to reverse the SJC's decision legalizing the unions was dismissed.

The case, which was to be heard today in Suffolk Superior Court, was deemed too similar to a previous appeal brought by 13 state lawmakers earlier this month, Flynn said last night. Justices dismissed that case.

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posted by Eve at 4:02 PM | link

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