MITT THE WIMP
MA Governor Mitt Romney has gotten credit for opposing the MA Supreme Court's decision to require same-sex marriage. Does he deserve this credit? His opposition has been limited to criticizing the Court and pushing for a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision. Criticism of the Court is an important pedagogical tool, but is not an effective counter to a court intent on re-writing a constitution, especially in MA where the judges are virtually life-tenured. An amendment is a very weak counter, because it allows an activist court to re-write a constitution whenever it can get at least 1/3 the voters to agree with the rewrite, which stands our system of government on its head. Governor Romney could have announced an intention to refuse to implement the Court's decision, on the legitimate ground that judicial review is the power of the judiciary to refuse to enforce unconstitutional laws, not the power to tell the other branches what to do. However, Romney chose not to.
