May Justice Sosman of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rest in peace . . .

Martha Sosman, flanked by Paul Cellucci (left), then governor, and William Weld at her swearing-in ceremony for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court bench (Globe File/ 2000)

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/12/justice_sosman_of_the_sjc_dies_at_56/

Associate Justice Sosman suffered long w/ breast cancer. And, she died at the age of 56. May she rest in peace.

Although the justice was a former member of the board of Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts (pro-choice, pro-abortion rights), she was no liberal on the Supreme Judicial Court bench. She often voted in the conservative column regarding legal issues. One such conservative stance was the same-sex marriage case wherein Justice Sosman wrote a lively dissent against same-sex marriage opting instead for civil unions for same-sex couples. Chief Justice Margaret Marshall wrote, at the time, the majority opinion in favor of same-sex marriage and point-for-point rebutted Justice Sosman's anti-same-sex marriage legal positions.

The Boston Globe article (cited w/ hyperlink above) speaks well of Sosman's legal intelligence and legal writing skills. At that, she will be missed no matter where one may fall on the subject matter of her writings.

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who will Governor Patrick select? Hhhmmmmmmm. Sure n hell won't be a "conservative" . . . indeed. This one's gonna be fun to watch. Won't it be grand to have a "progressive" on the SJC? Eh.