A lot of questions marks remain about the legality of 300 same-sex marriages in Michigan following last week's federal court of appeals ruling upholding the state's ban on gay marriage.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq of the Detroit News reports:
A judge is considering whether a new hearing is necessary to determine the legality of 300 same-sex unions in Michigan after a federal appeals court last week upheld the state’s ban on gay marriage.
U.S. District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith is hearing a case in Detroit, Caspar v. Snyder, brought on behalf of eight same-sex couples who were married at Michigan county clerk’s offices during the brief window when gay marriage was legal in the state.
In light of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision Thursday to uphold the state’s gay marriage ban, Goldsmith has ordered each of the sides to provide a brief “addressing the impact, if any, the decision has on the pending motions,” according to court documents.
“The Court will determine whether or not a new hearing is needed after review of the supplemental briefing,” Goldsmith said Friday in his order.
The News writes that same-sex couples marriages were conducted for a day earlier this year at some county clerk’s offices after U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman ruled the ban unconstitutional.
That ruling came in a lawsuit brought filed by April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, two Hazel Park nurses raising children as a couple, on March 21.
Clerks in Ingham, Oakland, Washtenaw and Muskegon counties provided special Saturday hours on March 22, right after Friedman's ruling, the News reported. That same day, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati issued a stay on marriages until the DeBoer case could be decided.
By then, 300 couples had already been married.
Gov. Rick Snyder, who has been wishy-washy about his stance on gay marriage -- particularly during the election -- said the 300 couples don't have state benefits of marriage.
“As I have previously stated, the same-sex couples who married at county clerk offices in the period between U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman's ruling in March and the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ temporary stay of that ruling, were legally married,” Snyder said in a statement Thursday. “However, the Court of Appeals decision does not allow for state benefits of marriage for those same-sex couples in accordance with our state constitution. That decision only can be changed if today's appeals court ruling is overturned.”
