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The IrishEcho
Boston Dub files suit
over bar exam fail
By Jim Smith.
irishecho.com Online August 22, 2007
BOSTON -- A Dublin native who
failed the Massachusetts bar exam because he refused to answer a question about
same-sex marriage rights is suing the Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners and
the state's Supreme Judicial Court.
Stephen Dunne, 30, filed a civil suit in Boston's U.S, District Court claiming
that an essay question was inappropriate and improperly required an endorsement
of same-sex marriage.
Because he refused to answer the question, he scored 269 points on the exam, one
point short of the passing grade of 270.
The hypothetical question at issue involved the rights of two lawyers, Mary and
Jane, whose marriage to each other two years ago had ended after Jane "got drunk
and hit Mary with a baseball bat, breaking Mary's leg, when she learned that
Mary was having an affair with Lisa."
Dunne, who has spoken only with the Boston Herald about his lawsuit, has since
kept reporters at a distance despite media requests from around the country.
He has, however, created a website,
ChristianLawsuit.com,
in which he says that he is an Irish immigrant with strong Christian values who
came to the U.S. on July 4, 1988.
He later graduated from Pennsylvania State University and gained citizenship
through six years of duty in the U.S. Army National Guard.
After completing a three year program at New England School of Law in the spring
of 2007, Dunne took the bar exam. In his complaint, Dunne says that his
failing grade was a punishment from Massachusetts officials "based strictly on
(my) refusal to support and promote homosexual marriage and parenting."
Dunne had initially sought $9.75 million in damages but recently amended that
amount to $9.75 to demonstrate that the issue is one of principle and not of
money.
In addition to seeking the removal of the question from the exam, Dunne is also
challenging the constitutionality of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.
Massachusetts became the only state in the U.S. to legally permit same-sex
marriage on May 17, 2004, following a declaration in November 2003 by the
state's Supreme Judicial Court that the prohibition of such marriages violated
the state's constitution.
In December, 2005, 170,000 Massachusetts residents filed a petition to put the
marriage issue on the ballot.
That initiative was stopped this past June after Governor Deval Patrick and top
lawmakers successfully lobbied other legislators to switch their votes and kill
the proposal.
In his complaint, Dunne writes that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has
tyrannically usurped the power of the legislature, "thereby diminishing the rule
of law and democracy."
This story appeared in the issue of August 22-28, 2007
jsmith@irisecho.com
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