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.
Apparently there was a question concerning a same sex couple on the exam and Stephen, who I guess will chose which laws he wants to follow if is he ever allowed to become a lawyer in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, chose to not answer the question and now he wants money, lots of it.
From the sound of his grade on the lawsuit exam, suing for 9.75 million is probably the only way he'll ever have a chance to make that amount. His federal lawsuit is also questioning the constitutionality of the equal marriage decision since I guess he doesn't believe it's legal (wow, is Amy tutoring him?)
He told the Boston Herald he has a law degree from a Boston law school and is currently attending a Boston business school but didn't say which school he exactly went to or where's he going. A lawyer from Goulston & Storrs states it succinctly in the Boston Herald:
“Lawyers have to answer questions about legal principles they disagree with all the time, and that doesn’t mean we’re endorsing them,” said Dacey, a director of Goulston & Storrs’ litigation group. “You might be somebody who is morally opposed to divorce, but have to interpret the divorce laws of the commonwealth to answer a question about who property is passed to.”
4 comments:
How absurd. I hope this bigot never becomes a lawyer....YIKES!
I like this quote even better, especially since it's from Atty. Pawlick's successor:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/07/06/boston_man_sues_over_gay_marriage_question_on_bar_exam/
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 aw degree and use it to argue for what you believe in."
One more thought. I'm reminded of Jim Lilly in Minnesota. He sued the city of Minneapolis for providing domestic partner benefits to employees and unfortunately won, resulting in DP benefits being banned for city employees in MN (see http://www.outfront.org/library/municipal.html)
He then tried to parlay the resulting "fame" into a run for MN State Senate, somehow forgetting that he lived in Minneapolis, rather than the Iron Range (the only part of MN that doesn't support some sort of domestic partner benefits). He got trounced and his opponent has introduced domestic partner legislation.
I'm guessing Mr. Dunne hopes to start a political career. I hope gay bashing proves as useful to him as it did Mr. Lilly.
I do love that they're calling it the "gay bar lawsuit."
MIT once turned down a rich fellow who wanted to donate them a medical school building. On the grounds that medical students would drag down the quality of the student body too far.
I guess there's mounting evidence law schools harbor similar peril, or worse :D
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