The federal court battle over a Massachusetts bar examination question about homosexual marriage has ended with the court accepting the plaintiff's voluntary dismissal of the case.
On Monday, a Massachusetts federal judge granted Stephen Dunne's request to dismiss his case against the bar examination testing agency, the state Supreme Judicial Court and four individual justices over a question on the state's bar exam concerning homosexual marriage.
In a lawsuit filed in June, Dunne claimed he failed the Massachusetts bar examination because he didn't answer a question about homosexual marriage.
He had sought preliminary and permanent injunctions barring the testing agency from enforcing the question in the current or future bar examinations and considering the question in regard to his own application to practice law. Stephen Dunne v. The Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners, No. 07-11166 (D. Mass.) In his dismissal request filed last month, Dunne noted that the question was not on the July 26 bar examination.
"Defendants' removal of the question is assurance that all future examinees taking the Massachusetts Bar Examination will not be forced to accept, support or promote a liberal ideology on a professional licensing examination," Dunne wrote.
In a response to Dunne's dismissal request, the board said they have "not agreed to limit the content of any future bar examinations."
"Defendants maintain that the question to which Plaintiff objects was a legitimate question regarding the current state of the law in the Commonwealth," wrote Attorney General Martha Coakley. "The Board of Bar Examiners maintains its right to test bar applicants on that same subject matter in future examinations."
