Tribe said that Kerry could seek to avoid discussing gay marriage by focusing attention on economic issues. But this is a taller order now that the issue is emanating from Kerry’s home state.

“If I were one of Bush’s people right now, I would force Kerry into saying whether he supports a state constitutional amendment [reversing the court’s ruling],” Parker said.

According to Tribe, 37 states have passed laws barring recognition of same-sex marriages, and Ohio Gov. Bob Taft could soon make his state the 38th.

“Thirty-eight is a magic number because it’s the smallest integer that is more than three quarters of 50,” Tribe said, in reference to the number of states needed to amend the U.S. Constitution.

By holding state-wide referenda on gay marriage, Republicans can motivate their socially conservative constituents to flock to the polls, Tribe said.

But changing the Massachusetts constitution would be a trickier task.

According to Barron, who is a former Crimson president, an amendment to the state constitution could not be passed until 2006.

Barron criticized the Massachusetts court’s emphasis on federal rather than state constitutional precedents.

He said the decision fails to recognize Massachusetts as a unique political entity.

“There’s no mention of the demographics of Massachusetts. There’s no mention of the fact that Massachusetts has a large Catholic population, or the fact that it has a large gay population,” he said.

“It was a mistake to highlight so prominently the federal constitutional case law,” Barron concluded.

The court’s November decision echoed the language of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision of May 17, 1954, which barred segregation in schools.

The Massachusetts court’s decision stayed its ruling for 180 days—until May 17.

“I have wondered if it was a conscious decision that the stay would run out on the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education,” Tribe said.

Strange Bedfellows