Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is well-known for lobster, the New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox. The state falls in the First Federal Circuit Court System. More than 80% of the New England residents live in the greater-Boston metro, making it the most populous and a highly influential city in the state’s history, industry, and academia. Both Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are in the Boston area and are ranked as two of the top universities nationally and worldwide.

The government of Massachusetts is laid out in the Constitution of the Commonwealth.  The state government, like the federal government, consists of three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. The executive branch is controlled by the governor and consists of over 150 state agencies. The governor also has a cabinet consisting of ten secretaries.  The legislative branch consists of the General Court, broken into two branches the Massachusetts Senate, which has 40 members, and the Massachusetts House of Representatives with has 160 members, and all members in both houses are up for election every two years.  Although a few remain, most county governments were dissolved in the 1990s and 2000s.

The judiciary of Massachusetts consists of the court of last resort, the Superior Court which is the court of last resort.  The Massachusetts District Court, also known as the District Court Department of the Trial Court hears a wide range of criminal, civil, housing, juvenile, mental health, and other types of cases.  The Land Court has limited subject-matter jurisdiction related to real property. Massachusetts also has a Housing Court, Probate and Family Court, Juvenile Court and Boston’s Municipal Court.

Massachusetts is also known for its liberal legislation. On May 17, 2004 it became the first US state to legalize Same-sex marriage, after a state court determined that exclusion of same-sex couples right to a civil marriage was unconstitutional. On November 8, 2016, the state also legalized marijuana under the Marijuana Legalization Initiative.  Massachusetts has progressive laws related to employment and has passed an Equal Pay Ordinance and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and legal analysis of both pieces of legislation are available on the National Law Review.