Massachusetts chief justice who wrote landmark gay marriage ruling says she’s retiring

Mass. judge who wrote gay marriage ruling retiring

BOSTON — Massachusetts Chief Justice Margaret Marshall said Wednesday that while she understands her tenure on the state’s high court will always be linked to the legalization of gay marriage, that case holds no greater importance in her mind than the hundreds of other rulings she authored.

“I’m proud of every decision,” said Marshall, who surprised even her closest colleagues with the announcement that she planned to retire from the bench by the end of October to spend more time with her husband, former New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis, who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

The court’s 4-3 ruling in the 2003 case called Goodrich v. Department of Public Health paved the way for Massachusetts to become the first U.S. state to allow same-sex couples to wed, igniting a fierce national debate over gay marriage that continues to this day.

“Whether and whom to marry, how to express sexual intimacy, and whether and how to establish a family — these are among the most basic of every individual’s liberty and due process rights,” Marshall wrote.

The chief justice recalled how a courtroom packed with hundreds of people quickly cleared out after the court heard arguments in the gay marriage case, leaving only a handful of people who were there for other matters.

For those people, Marshall said, the remaining cases that day were just as important.

“You learn as a judge that certain cases spark interest and others don’t, but the legal issues are important in every case,” she said.

Marshall, 66, was appointed by then-Gov. William Weld, a Republican, in 1996, and was elevated to chief justice by then-Gov. Paul Cellucci, also a Republican, three years later. She was the first woman to lead the 318-year-old court, the oldest continuously operating appellate court in the western Hemisphere.

Cellucci on Wednesday praised Marshall for a “remarkable tenure,” while noting that he disagreed with her on gay marriage.

Her departure from the bench, four years before the mandatory retirement age of 70, provides Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, with an election-year opportunity to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Judicial Court and name a new chief justice.

In a letter to Patrick, Marshall offered to leave her position earlier than the end of October if a successor was confirmed.

Patrick, who is visiting National Guard troops in Iraq, said in a statement that Marshall’s “dedication to the rule of law and the defense of human dignity is timeless.”

Marshall said her decision to retire was “purely personal” and had nothing to do with financial challenges faced by the state’s court system. The judiciary faces a $21 million shortfall and a state committee had recommended the temporary closings of at least a half dozen courts.

Conservatives criticized the gay marriage ruling as an example of “judicial activism,” but Marshall said the claim of activism is often made by those who disagree with the outcome of a case.

A native of South Africa, she noted that her appreciation of the First Amendment was shaped by her childhood.

“I grew up in a country where there was no freedom of speech, there was no freedom of the press, there was no freedom of movement,” she said.

Marshall attended Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, where in 1966, she led the anti-apartheid National Union of South African Students. She came to the U.S. in 1968, where she did master’s work at Harvard and later earned her law degree from Yale University.

She became a citizen in 1977, one year after passing the bar.

Marshall was lauded by many lawyers who argued cases before the court, including Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley, who called her tenure “historic.”

“Prosecutors arguing before her could expect tough questions, but they could also count on fairness, civility, and a sound decision from a first-rate legal mind,” Conley said.

Judges and judicial staffers who packed a conference room gave Marshall a prolonged ovation following her announcement.

Associate SJC Justice Robert Cordy said he had no inkling that Marshall planned to retire until the chief justice called him on Wednesday morning.

“When I look back on it and think about who she is and her commitment to her husband Tony, I think it’s very courageous,” said Cordy.

Lewis, 83, spent five decades at the Times, the last 32 years writing columns that championed free speech, human rights and constitutional law.

The couple married in 1984.