The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in favor of Goodridge saying that same-sex couples have the legal right to marry. Since marriage brings with it certain material advantages, citizens denied the right to choose to marry are excluded from the full range of human experience and denied full protection of the laws for one's avowed commitment to an intimate and lasting relationship. They argued that the centuries-old notion of marriage as limited to a man and a woman should be updated to define the institution as the exclusive, voluntary union of two persons as spouses.

In a later 4-3 ruling, the Court, saying that separate is seldom if ever equal, ruled that a bill proposed by the legislature which would allow civil unions but ban same-sex marriages would establish an unconstitutional, inferior, and disciminatory status for same-sex couples.

To see the entire Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health of Massachusetts  decision.
 

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