Senator Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge) has published a "guest commentary" at SHNS (thoughtfully reprinted by Kim for non-subscribers) offering his list of the top ten challenges facing the new administration and legislature.It's pretty funny, … [Read more...]
Romney backs judicial activism
Not-soon-enough-to-be-ex-Gov. Mitt Romney filed a lawsuit today in which he asks the Supreme Judicial Court to bypass the state legislature if they fail to vote on the anti-marriage amendment.Romney is asking the court to order the … [Read more...]
Lehigh on the ConCon
Scot Lehigh's column today echoes a lot of the debate that's been raging here over the past few days.For same-sex marriage supporters, the opportunity to kill the amendment now simply proved too tempting -- even though doing so meant … [Read more...]
How-de-do update: a concrete proposal …?
There were many excellent responses to my how-de-do post -- thanks to all for their thoughtful contributions. There is (at least) one very practical suggestion in there which actually strikes me as holding some promise. And I'm … [Read more...]
Here’s a pretty how-de-do!
Those familiar with W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's finest collaborative work, The Mikado, will recognize the title of this post. A few minutes into Act II, some of the main characters find themselves in a most unfortunate … [Read more...]
Why “we shouldn’t put constitutional rights to a popular vote” doesn’t work
Consider, for example, the process for amending the U.S. Constitution, which of course involves no popular vote -- Article V requires the concurrence of 2/3 of each branch of Congress and 3/4 of the state legislatures. If the … [Read more...]
Some thoughts on process
My position boils down to this: process matters. Procedural rules, such as those set forth in Article 48 which governs initiative petitions, are designed not to favor particular substantive outcomes, but rather to ensure that everyone … [Read more...]
ConCon: th-th-th-that’s all, folks!
The joint session has voted 109-87 to adjourn until January 2, 2007, at 2 pm. In theory, I suppose, there's no reason they couldn't still vote to advance the marriage question to the next session at that point, since the session … [Read more...]
ConCon: motion to adjourn
Rep. Rushing has moved to adjourn the session to January, and has been seconded. There will be no debate; the roll-call is ongoing now.UPDATE: A close vote in the Senate; Trav voted "no." Now we wait for the House vote. … [Read more...]
ConCon: question 19 still on the floor, and debate continues [update: Q19 is defeated]
Senator Joyce (D-Milton) is up. This might be a long one, since he's starting with a historical overview.... Shorter than I thought. Rep. Byron Rushing is up.... Rushing is talking at length -- expect someone to rise soon to ask … [Read more...]