Michigan Attorney General says gay couples who married before ban was reimposed are not eligible for benefits
Gay couples who tied the knot in Michigan before a ban on gay marriage was reimposed this month are going to the Supreme Court claiming they are still entitled to receive state marriage benefits.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a brief on Friday stating that an appeals court's decision to uphold the state's ban on gay marriage means that 300 same-sex marriages virtually never existed in law and they are therefore not eligible for state benefits.
The marriages were conducted in March, after the state's gay marriage ban was lifted, but before a stay was placed on that decision. The decision to lift the ban was repealed two weeks ago by the federal 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Eight of the same-sex couples have filed suit against the state and Governor Rick Snyder in April in order for their marriages to be recognised. The brief Schuette filed in that case asserts that because of the appeals court decision, their argument no longer has legal standing.
"The unqualified reversal by the Sixth Circuit in DeBoer nullifies the district court's decision completely, and it is as if the legal premise upon which plaintiffs' marriages are based never existed," Schuette said.
"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, and plaintiffs' requests for benefits attendant to a legal marriage must be denied."
Governor Snyder has said that although the couples are not eligible for state benefits, they are legally married. Schuette's brief contradicts that statement.
One of the plaintiff's attorneys, Jay Kaplan, said that the appeals court's decision has no bearing on his client's lawsuit.
"[In] our case, these people are married, they're legally married in the state of Michigan," he explained. "That was the law, they have legal marriage certificates.
"The federal government recognises their marriages and is [granting] them full benefits, and the state should do the same."
