GAY MARRIAGE: My Advanced Constitutional Law seminar is looking at the Baker case from Vermont and the Goodridge case from Massachusetts tomorrow, both of which find a right to gay marriage in their respective state constitutions. I just read over them both again. I have to say, the Vermont court wins on both style and substance. Its opinion reads like, well, an actual judicial opinion. Part of that, of course, is that it’s got a firmer legal ground thanks to the “common benefits” clause of the Vermont Constitution, which provides:

That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community, and not for the particular emolument or advantage of any single person, family, or set of persons, who are a part only of that community.

But the other reason is that they just bothered to write a legal opinion. Though I’m in favor of gay marriage, the Massachusetts opinion is just unpersuasive. There’s astonishingly little in the way of actual legal analysis there, and that hurts them.