Can the SJC declare the statute unconstitutional when the term “marriage” explicitly was written into the Constitution by the framers?
No. “It is a fundamental principle of constitutional construction that every word and phrase in the Constitution was intended and has meaning. Passing public passions and emotions . . . have little to do with the meaning of the Constitution, as it is written. Commonwealth v. O’Neal, 369 Mass. 242 (1975) (TAURO, C.J., concurring). All [the] words [of the Constitution] must be presumed to have been chosen advisedly.” Powers v. Secretary of Administration, 412 Mass. 119 (1992); Commonwealth v. Bergstrom, 402 Mass. 534, 541 (1988), quoting Mount Washington v. Cook, 288 Mass. 67, 70 (1934). Its phrases are to be read and construed according to the familiar and approved usage of the language. Yont v. Secretary of the Commonwealth, 275 Mass. 365 (1931). Jones v. Robbins, 8 Gray, 329, 340. Tax Commissioner v. Putnam, 227 Mass. 522, 523, 524. Attorney General v. Methuen, 236 Mass. 564, 573. Loring v. Young, 239 Mass. 349, 372. United States v. Sprague, 282 U. S. 716.
