As expected when she was nominated for the post a month ago, Barbara Lenk has become the first openly gay person on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state's highest court. The 7-member SJC is (in)famous for being the first state court to rule definitively that marriage equality is a fundamental right and that there is no rational reason or legitimate governmental purpose for denying civil marriage licences to same-sex couples (way back in November 2003).
The Boston Globe reports "Lenk approved for SJC; first openly gay justice on state's highest court":
The Governor’s Council confirmed Lenk on a 5-3 vote. She is Governor Deval Patrick’s fourth appointment to the seven-member SJC, which issued the landmark 2003 ruling that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize same-sex marriage.
Lenk, who married her partner, Debra Krupp, after the ruling, has 18 years’ experience on the bench, a degree from Harvard Law School, and a doctorate in political philosophy from Yale. Patrick nominated her to replace Justice Judith A. Cowin, who is retiring.
Lenk's confirmation hearing last week lasted more than seven hours, and was often contentious.
Critics raised questions about Lenk’s ruling in an incest case, and about whether she had avoided conflicts of interest when Krupp represented clients at the Appeals Court in her capacity as a lawyer for the state public defenders’ office.
Social conservatives blasted Lenk, saying her appointment to the SJC would encourage the indoctrination of children into homosexuality.
But Lenk had the full backing of the state’s legal establishment. Bar association leaders, former judges, and Lenk’s former clerks wrote letters to the Governor’s Council, saying Lenk’s critics were inappropriately focused on her sexuality and ignoring her legal credentials.A frickin Ph.D from Yale AND a Harvard Law degree and heterosexual supremacists and homophobes were still complaining? That's just sick! "Have you no, decency, sir?"
