The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has issued a ruling that is a set back to same sex couples in New Hamphire who wanted to get married in the Bay State,
Same sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, but the court upheld a state law that dates back to 1913.
That law says that Massachusetts may not marry an out-of-state couple if their marriage would not be legal in their home state.
NHPR's Mark Bevis has more.
Ed Butler and Les Schoof, two New Hampshire Innkeepers were plaintiffs in the Massachusetts case called Cote-Whitacre vs. Department of Public Health.
And Les Schoof says he and his partner are disappointed with the high court's decision.
Tape: this is one of a series of setbacks or disappointments that happens in your life but it doesn't keep from keep working to improve the situation and hopefully still at some point be able to get a licence and be married.
Schoof and Butler were one of 8 couples from around New England challenging a nearly 100 year old law.
The Bay State statute forbids non-residents from marrying in Massachusetts if their union would not be legal in their own state.
The law had not been used for decades.
But Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney ordered it enforced after the first same sex marriages were performed nearly 2 years ago.
Romney was quoted as saying he didn't want Massachusetts to become the Las Vegas of same sex marriages.
Supporters of same sex marriage were watching the outcome of the case closely.
tape: I'm sure there are going to be a lot of gay and lesbian people that are disappointed and most of the activist lawyers will be also.
That's Marcus Hurn, Law Professor and Associate Dean at the Franklin Pierce Law School
But Hurn, a self described gay activist lawyer, says the Massachusetts High Court made the right decision.
tape: because it will reinforce what I think is the prudent position that these decisions should be made by the people of each state thru their own democratic and legal processes, that no other state should be afraid of what her sister state does and that's the magic of federalism.
To some extent, it was that concern that drove the recent effort in New Hampshire to pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage in this state as between a man and a woman.
That proposed amendment failed to get enough votes in the House.
It didn't even go to the state Senate.
But Representative Tony Soltani, a Republican from Epsom, supported the amendment effort.
He says the decision in Massachusetts takes the pressure off of New Hamsphire lawmakers.
tape: now we can concentrate on what we're going to do with people who want to have same sex unions of some sort or another or grant them rights reciprocal rights of some sort or another here, we don't have to worry about a constitutional amendment as much.
Gay rights activists in Massachusetts are expected to begin the legislative work of trying to recind that 1913 law.
They plan to argue that local town clerks shouldn't have to be responsible for keeping track of which states allow same sex unions, which don't, and which don’t care.
And in the meantime, Ed Butler and Les Schoof go back to their lives as innkeepers in rural New Hampshire
If the case had gone their way, they had planned to apply for a marriage license in Massachusetts.
For NHPR News, I'm Mark Bevis.
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