Boston man sues over
gay marriage question
on bar exam
By Erin Conroy, AP
from boston.com on the Web, July 7, 2007
BOSTON, July 6 --A man who
claims he failed the Massachusetts bar exam because he refused to answer a
question about gay marriage has filed a federal lawsuit, saying the test
violated his rights and that his religious beliefs were targeted.
Stephen Dunne, 30, of Boston, is seeking $9.75 million in the suit against the
Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial
Court. He was denied a license to practice law in May after scoring
268.866 on the exam, just shy of the 270 passing grade.
Dunne, who is representing himself in the case, refused to answer an exam
question addressing the rights of two married lesbians, their children and their
property, and claims in the suit that it cost him a passing score.
In the suit, Dunne called the question "morally repugnant and patently
offensive," and said he refused to answer it because he believed it legitimized
same-sex marriage and same-sex parenting, which is contrary to his moral
beliefs.
Dunne claims the Massachusetts state government is "purposely-advancing Secular
Humanism's homosexual agenda."
He called the question a "disguised mechanism to screen applicants according to
their political ideology" and said it "has the discriminatory impact of
persecuting and oppressing (Dunne's) sincere religious practices and beliefs"
protected by the First Amendment, according to the lawsuit filed in June.
The Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners declined to comment on what the
questions are worth and how the tests are scored. The Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court declined to comment.
David Yas, editor of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, said the suit was "idiotic"
and that Dunne was "completely missing the point about what it means to be a
lawyer."
"Knowing the law has nothing to do with agreeing with the law," he said.
Yas said if Dunne really believed the question was improper, he should "answer
the question correctly, get your law degree and use it to argue for what you
believe in."
The suit also challenges the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, which was
legalized in Massachusetts in 2003.
Dunne could not immediately be reached by The Associated Press for comment.
He told the Boston Herald he has a law degree from a Boston law school and is
currently attending a Boston business school.
He said the bar exam is not the place for questions about same-sex marriage.
"There's a different forum for that contemporary issue to be discussed, and it's
inappropriate to be on a professional licensing examination," Dunne told the
Herald. "You don't see questions about partial-birth abortion or abortion
on there."
Lee Swislow, executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, said
Dunne is trying to use a legal question to advance a political agenda.
"The bar exam was a test of whether he knew how to apply domestic relations law,
and he refused to answer," she said. "Now he's suing, and I think that
makes him a loser."
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