Mass. Bill Would Prevent Divorcees From Having Sex

The process of grieving after a divorce has many stages: Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Well, if one Massachusetts Republican gets his way, we’ll soon be able to add “asking a judge for a permission slip so you can start start having sex again” to that list. And thank God for that, right?

State Rep. Richard Ross has introduced a bill that would ban anyone who’s in the process of getting a divorce from dating or having sex — unless “express permission is granted by the courts,” that is. Because nothing screams “small government” like requiring a judge’s permission to go on a date, right? The bill was actually introduced last year, but it received an extension for consideration on Thursday.

Ross says that he doesn’t support the bill... even though he introduced it. The legislation was apparently written by one of Ross’s constituents, who requested that he introduce it. That’s a thing in Massachusetts — any resident can ask that their representative introduce a bill of their choosing, although the representative isn’t required to do so.

In any event, this is an absurd enough law that one can’t help but wonder if the constituent who wrote it has, ahem, a personal stake in the matter.