On April 14, 2014, several same-sex couples, who were married in Michigan on March 22, 2014, filed a lawsuit in the United Stated District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the state of Michigan. The plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties ...
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On April 14, 2014, several same-sex couples, who were married in Michigan on March 22, 2014, filed a lawsuit in the United Stated District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the state of Michigan. The plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and private counsel, asked the court to declare that the ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional when applied to Michigan same-sex couples whose marriages were valid at the time they were entered into, enjoin the defendants from refusing to recognize marriages that were at the time they were entered into, and award the plaintiffs costs of suit and reasonable attorney's fees.
The plaintiffs were all married in Michigan on March 22nd, 2014, during the window of time between the decision in
DeBoer v. Snyder, which overturned the ban on same-sex marriage and the stay issued by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which enjoined the state from enforcing the ban on same-sex marriage. The plaintiffs' marriages were legal at the time they were solemnized. Since the stay, the governor of Michigan has announced that the benefits and rights associated with the plaintiffs' marriages have been "suspended." The plaintiffs alleged that this suspension puts their marriages in a state of legal limbo and violates their rights to due process and equal protection.
The plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary injunction on May 29th, 2014. Six days later, a motion to stay was filed by the defendant, and on July 1st, they also filed a motion to consolidate cases.
On January 15, 2015, the District Court (Judge Goldsmith) ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, preliminarily enjoining the State of Michigan from refusing to recognize the marriages of all same-sex couples lawfully married the state between the district court's decision in
DeBoer v. Snyder and before the issuance of the stay by the Sixth Circuit. The court also denied the defendant's motions to stay, to dismiss, and to consolidate cases.
Megan Dolan - 07/01/2014
Thomas Topping - 03/02/2015
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