Countdown to the Firing of the SJC Judges
Should a Black Judge Who Votes for Gay Marriage Be Given a "Get Out of Trouble" Pass?

By MassNews Staff

            When we look at Justice Roderick L. Ireland, should we give him a special "pass" on gay marriage because he's black.

            Don't forget: The vote of every judge was crucial, including Judge Ireland! We had a 3-3 tie! Any of those six Associate Judges could have changed the ruling, including Justice Ireland. The  question is should Massachusetts be forced by unelected judges to embrace gay marriage?

            Because Ireland voted in favor of her plan, Margaret Marshall was able to break the tie.   Why did Roderick Ireland vote that way? He's not a poor man. He's not one of the disadvantaged," who must be helped because America was mean to his ancestors over many generations.

            As Ireland sits quietly with a pleasant look on his face at Oral Arguments,

one might believe he was instructed on what to say. His doesn't appear passionate or "involved" in the case. But the reality is that Ireland is more experienced as a judge than any other judge on the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC). John Greaney has been a judge for 27-years. Judge Ireland has 28-years under his belt. It is true, however, that Greaney has been on the SJC since 1989 whereas Ireland arrived in 1997, placing him behind Greaney and Marshall in that category.

            A Person You Want to Like 

            Justice Roderick L. Ireland appears to be a person you want to like. Unlike the other two judges who also helped Judge Marshall, he does not appear to have a mean or angry streak in him. If he does have such a temperament, we have not discovered it.

            The judge is a graduate of Lincoln University in the beautiful farm country of Pennsylvania, 45 miles southwest of Philadelphia. His father, George L. Ireland, also graduated from there in 1941. The Judge has had a pleasant life with apparently enough money to pay his admissions to college and to the prestigious law school at Columbia University in New York, and then on to Harvard and Northeastern for graduate studies after law school was over.

            Lincoln University was founded in 1854 by a white man, John Miller Dickey, as the first institution "anywhere in the world" to educate "male youth of African descent." It's now a state-related, coeducational university with 2,000 students.

            Judge Ireland is proud that he's "active in his community." He boasts on the SJC's website that he's a member of the Eliot Church in Roxbury, and has been for many years while "participating in numerous church-sponsored programs and initiatives." But a check with our many black friends in that area disclosed that they have never heard of Judge Ireland. A call to the Eliot Church discovered that it is without a minister at the present time, and there is no one who could help us. However, everyone agrees that the vast majority of its members do not want gay marriage.

            The judge also says on the SJC website that he is a frequent speaker in schools and churches, but he does not tell what he says to schoolchildren about his ruling on gay marriage.

How Could Any Black Man Put His Name to this Gay Marriage Ruling?

            When Margaret Marshall issued her Ruling which Judge Ireland officially signed, she compared homosexuals to black people. She cited the cases which gave blacks civil liberties in this country. She said that homosexuals are entitled to the same protection.

            This is required under our state Constitution, she wrote: "because of a single trait: skin color [if blacks are involved], sexual orientation here [involving homosexuals]."

             In other words, the skin color of blacks is comparable to the sexual practices of homosexuals.

            Justice Ireland could have joined the three other Massachusetts judges who wrote the following with great passion:

            "The courageous efforts of many have resulted in increased dignity, rights, and respect for gay and lesbian members of our community, the issue presented here is a profound one, deeply rooted in social policy, that must, for now, be the subject of legislative not judicial action."

            Please remember that these judges are not "homophobes" or "right-wing" zealots. All these people on both sides were appointed by Paul Cellucci except for Greaney who was appointed by Mike Dukakis. They are Massachusetts liberals who also are members of the Supreme Judicial Court.

            These three liberal judges also wrote:

            This is not all they wrote. Judge Cordy was so upset that he wrote more than Margaret Marshall did, Exactly 9210 words to Marshall's 9021.

            Cordy summed it up in this truism.

            "The court recognizes this concern, [marriage between homosexuals could signal an abandonment of the belief that marriage for heterosexuals is the proper environment for having and rearing of children] but brushes it aside with the assumption that permitting same-sex couples to marry 'will not diminish the validity or dignity of opposite-sex marriage,' [citation] and that 'we have no doubt that marriage will continue to be a vibrant and revered institution.' [citation]

            "Whether the court is correct in its assumption is irrelevant. What is relevant is that such predicting is not the business of the courts. A rational Legislature, given the evidence, could conceivably come to a different conclusion, or could at least harbor rational concerns about possible unintended consequences of a dramatic redefinition of marriage."