Hey, Michigan! Stop being so weird!
The state that gave us Elizabeth Berkley just made the fight for marriage equality even more complicated. First, a judge overturned the state’s marriage ban, yay. Then a couple hundred couples got married, yay again. And then the Governor said that the licenses were definitely valid, yay one more time.
But there’s a catch: valid though they may be, the state can’t actually treat the couples as though they are wed. BOOOOOO.
That’s because Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is appealing the ruling, and the Sixth Circuit has stayed the ruling pending appeal. That will take at least several months — or as we saw in California, several years. So, in the mean time, 323 couples are left with a marriage license that works in other some states, but not where they actually live.
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But to be honest, the appeal will likely be fairly quick. Numerous other states are rocketing towards the Supreme Court’s next session, and Michigan will probably want to be among them. (Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Nevada, etc.) Expect to see briefs in May or June, or possibly earlier if the court grants a request for an expedited schedule.
And in the mean time, if you’re one of those married couples in Michigan, you might want to play it safe and move to Iowa for a while until all this blows over. Or sue the state to force them to recognize your license. Whatever!
Dakotahgeo
One would swear that the Michigan and its right wing politicians were situated between either FL, AL, MS, LA, or TX. These MI boys and girls in the MI Congress aren’t the brightest street lamps on the Boulevard! It’s to pity them!
rextrek
meanwhile – Canada Laughs at MeriKKKa, and it’s Hypocritical Creeds about Liberty this, and Freedom that…all BS blah blah blah……to make make merikkka sound better then it actually is in Reality!
BBellairs
@Dakotahgeo, it’s true our right wing politicians are not the brightest, it’s our attorney general who is the real problem. He is responsible for the “stay” on the Federal judges ruling for marriage equality here in MI. He claims it is “the will of the people” because they voted against it 10 years ago. He, of course, had conveniently forgotten that it was the “will of the people” to legalize medical marijuana here in MI, but he still managed to shut down all the dispensaries and prosecute the legally licensed sellers. He has his own agenda, I just hope my fellow Michiganders remember all this at re-election time!
Scribe38
@BBellairs: I wouldn’t count on him getting voted out. The Republicans have taken over the state and changed the voting districts in such a way where they will keep the house and Senate of Mi. The state wide offices I believe is safe for the GOP. MI has turned into a red state.
BBellairs
@Scribe38: We’ve always been a “reddish” state. But if the polls and reports are anything to go by, I think most people here becoming more and more liberal. The overwhelming majority of people here in MI now support marriage equality. The tide seems to be turning against the current republican’t legislature. We also know that it’s only a matter of time before the U.S. Supreme Court rules in our favor on equality. People here are not happy with the attorney general wasting taxpayer money to fight a ruling that everyone knows he can’t win.
Mezaien
The Christian did it again.