In a brief filed in the Rhode Island same-sex divorce legal case, the Family Research Council quotes the Humpty Dumpty character from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
The Family Research Council, based in Washington, D.C., and the Rev. Lyle Mook, of South Kingstown, filed a response brief, saying, “This court is being requested literally to ignore the true meaning of ‘marriage’ that has defined the institution for centuries throughout the world.”
The brief, written by Alliance Defense Fund lawyers and Middletown lawyer Laura C. Harrington, then quoted from the Lewis Carroll book in which Humpty Dumpty says: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“Appellants and their supporting cast have taken the Humpty Dumpty approach to the term ‘marriage,’ nowhere defining what they mean by it, obviously assuming it means something other than a union of a man and a woman, and using it with a malleability never contemplated by the judicial decisions they cite,” the brief said. “This is unequivocally true for Rhode Island. ‘Marriage’ in Rhode Island is not ambiguous and only means the union of one man and one woman — no more and no less.”
Meanwhile, Humpty Dumpty has been busy, furiously packing all his belongings in Wonderland, moving into a brand new office building in Rabidly Anti-Gay Ville. Dumpty’s “Humpty Dumpty Marriage Defenders and Associates Legal Fund” office will open in September.
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August 18th, 2007 at 5:50 am
Matt… hate to break it to you, but that sort of literary allusion is quite common in legal writing, though perhaps not often to something so colorful. Frankly, I have to give props to the lawyer – it was a nice bit of work. The argument still fails logically and legally in my opinion, but as a bit of writing, it’s effective. Sometimes, that’s just the sort of thing you need to draw the judge’s attention… these briefs get dull sometime, and a bit of color could win you favor – and lord, but judges love slipping that stuff into their rulings! Just saying… back to law school with me. Hope all’s well, and good luck in your new ventures.
August 18th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Okay… so this kind of stuff might be normal (although it is a bit outlandish, if you ask me), but I thought groups like the Family Research Council based their principles on good ole’ King James. Wow… It is so nice to see they’ve added Alice to their canon.