The Massachusetts Supreme Court has now joined the Legislature and Governor Jane Swift in violating Massachusetts law. They have all refused to follow the state Constitution and allow the voters to decide gay marriage at the ballot box even though 130,000 people signed a petition to do so and all the necessary requirements were followed.

The Supreme Judicial Court told former Gov. Swift in an opinion on Dec. 20, 2002 that the Constitution had been violated by the Legislature and that she must act before Dec. 31, 2002, to see that a vote was held.

Now the SJC is joining in the illegal action.

I personally appeared before the SJC four times since October 2002 (twice before a Single Justice and twice before the full court) to counsel them on this matter and to warn that if they go against the will of the people, it could change our whole political structure in the state.

Today's decision is our answer because if they allowed the people to vote, they could not do what the Court is doing today. And of course, the Court understands that.

This all means that the foundation of our society has been decided by seven people -- all of them lawyers. That is sad. The overarching question they had to decide was who would make that momentous decision, the citizens or the lawyers?

The arrogance of these lawyers is without bounds. They know that the citizens are against gay marriage and the only way it will happen is to force it upon them.

We are witnessing the collapse of a once-great society, not from an invading army but from decay within.

The Chief Justice, Margaret Marshall, first came to this country from her native South Africa at age 24 and later made an alliance with the owners of The New York Times Company (the Sulzberger family where five members own all of that company's voting stock) by marrying its premiere columnist and family friend, Anthony Lewis. The Times Company had its subsidiary, the Boston Globe, push for Marshall's appointment without ever revealing its own conflict of interest. Now we see more of the results of the New York Times/Boston Globe power.

How the people react will be seen. But their outrage will be muted by the immense power of the five family-owners of The New York Times Company.

We have become a lawless society.