Kris Mineau of the Mass. Family Institute, in his latest act of bullying, is threatening to file complaints with the bar overseers against any lawyer/legislators who vote to recess or adjourn the constitutional convention Tuesday. Mr. Mineau doesn’t know the constitution nearly as well as he thinks he does. Article 21 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights confers absolute immunity on legislators in the exercise of their official duties. It reads, “The freedom of deliberation, speech and debate, in either house of the legislature, is so essential to the rights of the people, that it cannot be the foundation of any accusation or prosecution, action or complaint, in any other court or place whatsoever.”
The fact is legislators are free to take a principled stand against any attempt to write inequality into our 226 year old constitution. The unsurpassed ugliness of the proposition of constitutionalized discrimination justifes stern counter-measures in the exercise of conscience. Legislators, not the SJC nor Mr. Mineau, make the call on whether recess or adjournment is permissible.