candidate for governor in 2002, Romney said: "Call me old fashioned, but I don't support gay marriage nor do I support civil union." During that 2002 campaign, he also supported hate crimes legislation and opposed other discrimination against gays, while supporting some partner benefits for gays. Also in 2002, Romney opposed a Massachusetts constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage and domestic partnerships because the amendment, which was supported by the Democratic leader Tom Finneran, would have prohibited domestic partnership benefits for gays and lesbians. Romney said, Basically I see the provision of basic civil rights and domestic partnership benefits [as] a campaign against Tom Finneran. I see Tom Finneran and the Democratic leadership as having opposed the application of domestic partnership benefits to gay and lesbian couples and I will support and endorse efforts to provide those domestic partnership benefits to gay and lesbian couples. In November 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that the Massachusetts State Constitution requires that same-sex marriage be permitted under law; in response this time, Governor Romney supported a state constitutional amendment to forbid such marriages but which also would have legalized civil unions. Opponents of same-sex marriage "argued that the court's ruling was not binding and urged Romney to ignore it," but "Romney did not want to trigger a constitutional crisis" and followed the court's ruling while seeking to pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. He moved to limit the scope of the ruling, utilizing an obscure 1913 law that technically barred marriages in Massachusetts for out-of-state residents if the marriage “would be void” in their own home state. He stated that clerks who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses would face punishment, while allowing clerks the ability to determine what would count as proof of residency in the state. Later, Romney supported other bans on same-sex marriage that did not include a provision for civil unions. In 2006, Romney announced his support of the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have federally defined marriage in the U.S. Constitution as the union of one man and one woman. Romney said during his 2008 presidential campaign, [M]y view on marriage has been entirely consistent over my political career. And that is that I oppose same-sex marriage. I also oppose civil unions ... ever since [same-sex marriage] became a prominent [feature] in my state, with the decision of the Supreme Judicial Court, I