US Attorney General pushed to recognise Michigan same-sex marriages
The week after a same-sex marriage ban in the US state of Michigan was struck down, then reinstated, two counties have urged US Attorney General Eric Holder to recognise some 300 same-sex couples who married in the interim.
Not long after a judge declared Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, an appeals court issued a stay against the ruling.
However, clerks in Michigan were then told to cease issuing marriage licenses to hundreds of same-sex couples after a motion of stay has once more temporarily reinstated the ban.
Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum and East Lansing Mayor Nathan Triplett on Monday, however, wrote a letter urging Holder to recognise the 300+ couples who married in the state on Saturday.
“Many of the couples that were married on March 22 waited decades for that opportunity,” they wrote.
“Their marriages complied with Judge Friedman’s order and all relevant provisions of Michigan law and should be recognized as such by state and federal authorities without delay.”
The US 6th Circuit Court announced at the weekend: “To allow a more reasoned consideration of the motion to stay, it is ordered that the district court’s judgment is temporarily stayed until Wednesday.”
The initial ruling was the fifth in recent months in which a ban has been declared unconstitutional, following Texas, Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia.
