Problem with Margaret Marshall Is Corruption, Not "Marriage"
By Attorney J. Edward Pawlick
    The problem this state has with Chief Justice Margaret Marshall does not concern homosexual "marriage."
    It's about corruption.
    We, who are concerned with social issues, first evidenced that corruption in 2002 when the state Constitution was violated by the Legislature which refused to vote on the Protection of Marriage Amendment (with the Governor going along). The politicians knew if they followed the law and allowed the people to vote, the Amendment would be approved. Even Justice Marshall felt compelled to rule that the law had been broken, but she also opined that nobody could do anything about it. As a result of the evident corruption and the frustration of the people, the most important person at the State House, Tom Birmingham, went to the political graveyard and a Republican was elected Governor.
    In the "Goodridge" case which now brings the charge of corruption directly to our highest Court itself, it's indisputable that back in 1999, Chief Justice Margaret Marshall encouraged the attorney for the plaintiff to file a case concerning homosexual marriage in our court system, and she even instructed the attorney, Mary Bonauto, in how to do it. Bonauto followed the instructions and filed her suit on April 11, 2001.
    When Bonauto lost the case before an impartial judge in our Superior Court, our historic trial court, a year later on May 8, 2002, Bonauto was not concerned about that because she had been assured by the Chief Justice, even before she brought it in 2001, that she would win in our Supreme Court. She appealed to the Appeals Court but Marshall intervened on September 18, 2002, and had the case brought directly to her own court.
    But the corruption didn't stop there. Margaret Marshall permitted the Chief Justice of our Superior Court, of which we have been so proud over the centuries, to also encourage and instruct Atty. Bonauto. That fact is also indisputable. Then when the case returned to the Superior Court on May 17 of this year, it was kept far away from the judge who had ruled against Bonauto, Thomas E. Connolly. It was given to another judge in the Superior Court on that fateful day.
    And now when the people ask for a chance to debate this corruption, the powers in the Democratic Party enjoy playing the shell game as though this is a carnival and the citizens are supposed to guess which politician is a "good" guy and which is a "bad" guy. The politicians wish to continue this shell game until "time has expired." But that's not going to happen this year.
    The citizens are smarter, more savvy and even more upset than they were in 2002. Something will burst soon.
    (Ironically, the newspaper I founded in 1972 and managed until I sold it in 1997, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, named Mary Bonatuo as "Lawyer of the Year" twice in recent years. That's a little like naming a baseball player as "Player of the Year" and then discovering he used weighted bats and was also working with the Mafia on throwing games for the gambling syndicate. It didn't take long for the establishment lawyers to corrupt the paper of which I was so proud. But, I am sure the pressure on them was enormous. After all, they also have families to support, and so you go along to get along. It doesn't take long to happen, does it?)