The Attorney General of Michigan says the State does not have to recognize over 300 same-sex marriage legally performed in his state because they “never existed.”
That’s Bill Schuette up there in the photo, with his wife Cynthia and their two children, standing on stage at the 2010 Michigan Republican State Convention, just a few months before he won the election for Attorney General.
AG Schuette’s official bio on the State of Michigan’s official website, paid for by Michigan taxpayers, proudly touts his marriage, and rightly so, and proudly mentions his children, and rightly so.Â
Schuette has many accomplishments listed on his bio.Â
“At the age of 31, he was one of the youngest Congressmen in America.”
“In 1990, Bill Schuette was Michigan’s Republican candidate for the United States Senate.”
“Bill Schuette graduated cum laude from Georgetown University in 1976, receiving a Bachelor of Science in the Foreign Service.”
Missing from the Attorney General’s bio however is his latest accomplishment: Telling the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on Friday night that the State of Michigan considers the more than 300 marriages of same-sex couples legally performed in The Great Lake State to be “void.”
“Plaintiffs’ marriages are void and cannot be recognized for any purposes,” Schuette states in his filing. “Michigan’s public policy has at all times insisted upon a definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. In order to protect Michigan’s sovereign interest in that definition, Plaintiffs’ marriages cannot be recognized for any purposes,” the Attorney General claims.
Schuette is embracing the 6th circuit Court of Appeals ruling earlier this month, which found that states have the legal right to ban same-sex marriages. That ruling is being contested and plaintiffs are filing with the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision. In fact, it very well may be a Michigan case, DeBoer v. Snyder, that determines the future of marriage for same-sex couples in this country.
The Attorney General goes as far as to state that despite legally obtaining licenses to wed from the State, these 300-plus couples are not married “because a court erroneously concluded that Michigan’s definition was unconstitutional.”
“Consequently, from a legal standpoint, because the marriages rested solely on the district court’s erroneous decision, which has now been reversed, it is as if the marriages never existed,” Schuette says in his filing – not once expressing sorrow, regret, or concern for his constituents, the people who job it is to protect.
The federal government recognizes the marriages of these same-sex couples. Their home state, where they live, work, pay taxes, and are raising families, is working overtime to not.
Buzzfeed’s Chris Geidner reports that the “plaintiffs are to respond by Nov. 21, at which point the court will decide whether a hearing on the issue is needed.”
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Image via Flickr