Finally, commies, blasphemers, and fornicators can relax. A new bill proposed by State Representative Byron Rushing (D-South End) aims to repeal archaic Massachusetts General Laws designed to rein in immorality. Long dormant, these laws can be used, technically, to throw you in jail for things like providing birth control to an unmarried woman, cheating on your spouse, spitting in public, or committing “unnatural and lascivious acts” (think Ramrod, Saturday night, dark bathroom stall).“There have been concerns about unconstitutional laws on the books; laws that criminalize activities that people don’t think are criminal,” Rushing says, as well as laws that are inactive or contradictory to current legislation. “And some of these laws are just silly.”
That’s an understatement. When was the last time you contemplated racing a horse near a camp meeting? And why should MDs alone have the right to apply tattoos when that needle-wielding, four-hundred pound goateed bald dude who inked a butterfly on my college roommate’s boob did a perfectly fine job?
Co-sponsored by 15 other assembly members (including senators Edward Sugustus and Pat Jehlen), Rushing’s bill was prompted by Governor Mitt Romney’s successful effort to enforce a 1913 law barring people who cannot legally marry in their own states from marrying here. Originally intended to prevent out-of-state interracial couples from getting hitched in Massachusetts and long since ignored, the law was deployed as ammunition in Romney’s fight against same-sex marriage. When asked to rule on the governor’s enforcement of the 1913 law, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court — which ruled in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional in 2003 — upheld Romney’s effort to uphold the 1913 law in 2006.
That long-ignored yet now infamous law is conspicuously absent from Rushing’s list. “It’s what happens when you leave things dormant; they can be resurrected,” Rushing says. “[The 1913 law] would have been on this bill before Goodridge. Now, that law is active, so that repeal is a separate legislative process.”
Rushing hopes that his bill is a first step toward fine-tooth-combing the Massachusetts General Laws every four to six years, and that undoubtedly serves a high public service that affects everyone. After all, who hasn’t hocked a loogey on a public sidewalk now and again?
Related:
Power hungry?, Go for the gelt, She who controls the purse, More 
- Power hungry?
It’s remarkable how dramatically the state’s political leadership has changed since the most recent Constitutional Convention.
- Go for the gelt
Much has been made of how Mitt Romney has been courting evangelical-Christian support for his presidential ambitions. But Romney is also seeking friends — and, more important, money — among Jews.
- She who controls the purse
The rumor mill has been buzzing with speculation that Massachusetts senate president Robert Travaglini might leave the legislature to take a position with the Massachusetts Hospital Association or the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.
- Romney's greatest gaffes - 'tar baby' update
Even by Mitt Romney’s gaffe-tastic standards, this was a bad one.
- Mitt to Bay State: elect this
Last Thursday, Mitt Romney railed against state legislators for subverting the constitutional process to get what they wanted at the Constitutional Convention.
- Healey’s pork problem
Along with cuts to big, statewide programs, the governor pulled funding for smaller, local projects earmarked for towns from Cape Cod to the Berkshires.
- The 10th Annual Muzzle Awards
Mitt Romney will say or do anything if he thinks it will help him become president.
- While you were out . . .
When you’re a student, it can seem as if reality just freezes when you leave town for the summer.
- The mess at UMass
Before he terminated his do-little term as governor to kick off his presidential campaign, Mitt Romney planted a ticking time bomb at the University of Massachusetts.
- Broke or not?
Even by Massachusetts’s standards, the way Beacon Hill manages the state budget is a disgrace.
- Old Mitt of the Mountain
Mitt Romney had a golden opportunity a week ago to do something about his inauthenticity problem, the one that even his most ardent supporters in New Hampshire recognize.
- Less
Topics:
This Just In
, Mitt Romney, U.S. Government, U.S. State Government, More
, Mitt Romney, U.S. Government, U.S. State Government, Culture and Lifestyle, GLBT Issues, Special Interest Groups, Relationships, Gay and Lesbian Relationships, Same-Sex Marriage, Byron Rushing, Less
