First there was Dianna Abdala. Now there’s Stephen Dunne, in a story which might deserve a spot on the Daily Show, rather than just in the Boston Globe.
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."
Wow. I know that Justice Scalia likes to rant about his imagined gay kulturkampf, but this is even more idiotic, more insane.
He wants $10 million in damages? Because he failed the Massachusetts bar exam, allegedly because he refused to answer a question about the legal rights of same-sex couples? Maybe the Massachusetts Supreme Court was wrong in holding that the MA Constitution requires same-sex marriage. (Although it wasn’t.) Maybe same-sex marriage is bad. (Although again, it isn’t.)
But come on Mr. Dunne, you fantastic idiot, stop being such a… well, fantastic idiot! Maybe if you’d failed because your question was marked incorrect because you’d expressed normative disapproval of same-sex marriage you’d have some sort of claim (though for closer to $50,000 than $10 million)… but various aspects of the law are always going to be objectionable to someone — you don’t get to be exempted from answering legitimate legal questions on your bar exam just because you’ve bought into some bastardized, horrific interpretation of Christianity!
Accidental Blogger 
3 responses to “Is there something in the water in Massachusetts? (Joe)”
Thanks for writing this, Joe. This is indeed bizarre and when I read it in the Boston Globe, I was hoping that one of the “lawyers” among the A.B. authors would publish an opinion.
Mr. Dunne is out of luck. As David Yas, the editor of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly said, the suit was “idiotic” because:
“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.”
Are you in Amsterdam now or in the US? If in Amsterdam, have a great time and keep an eye on Massachusetts and the rest of the country for blog worthy events. Perhaps you will also write about your experience in Amsterdam.
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I am very glad Mr. Dunne is making a public display of his idiocy. Hopefully this will keep him out of law altogether, and if not, at least everyone is forwarned. To paraphrase Bertie Wooster’s Aunt Agatha, to Mr. Dunne:
“It’s people like you who make me dispair for the future of the race.”
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That’s what’s so ridiculous about our system these days, though. If it were the other way around merely seeing a question posed in that format could cause sufficient durress so as to render him incapable of even finishing the exam. Just another example of the minority asserting their beliefs on everybody else. Though I would have just answered it and gotten my degree. Oh well.
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