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 a 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.