A federal court has instructed the State of Michigan that it must honor the same-sex marriages it licensed, all 300 of them.
U.S. District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith this morning has ruled that the State of Michigan cannot ignore the 300 same-sex couples it licensed to marry, and must recognize their unions as legal. GOP Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette had argued that since the 6th Circuit ruled the State of Michigan has the right to ban same-sex couples from marrying, the State had the right to not recognize those marriages.
“In these circumstances, what the state has joined together, it may not put asunder,” Judge Goldsmith ruled.
“Even though the court decision that required Michigan to allow same-sex couples to marry has now been reversed on appeal,” Goldsmith explained, “the same-sex couples who married in Michigan during the brief period when such marriages were authorized acquired a status that state officials may not ignore absent some compelling interest — a constitutional hurdle that the defense does not even attempt to surmount.”
The ruling is stayed for 21 days, so we can expect more news from this development.
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Image by Lambda Legal via Twitter
Hat tip: Capital T Capital J