KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the state’s constitutional amendment protecting marriage as a union between one man and one woman prohibits public institutions from extending marriage benefits to unmarried couples, including same-sex “domestic partners.”
“All government programs should comply with state law, and the appeals court has correctly interpreted the state laws on marriage,” said ADF attorney Dale Schowengerdt, who authored a friend-of-the-court brief on the case along with ADF-allied attorney James Wierenga. “Michigan law expressly prohibits marriage substitutes. As the court recognized, government entities are free to give health and other benefits to employees, as long as it’s on an equal basis, without basing them on a marriage-like status.”
The brief, filed in January 2006, defended the state’s constitutional amendment protecting marriage as a union between one man and one woman, as well as the benefits secured therein (
www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=3657). The ACLU sued the state demanding marriage benefits for “domestic partnerships,” including same-sex couples.
Michigan’s marriage protection amendment, passed by the citizens of that state in November 2004, reads, “To secure and preserve the benefits of marriage for our society and for future generations of children, the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose” (
www.domawatch.com/stateissues/michigan/index.html).
“The people of Michigan made their intentions clear by passing a constitutional amendment that protects marriage from all counterfeits,” said Schowengerdt. “Contrary to the demands of the ACLU, the marriage amendment clearly states what marriage is and what it is not.”
A copy of Thursday’s ruling by the Michigan Court of Appeals in the case
National Pride at Work v. Governor of Michigan can be read at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/GovMIopinion.pdf.
For more information on the battle to protect marriage, visit
www.domawatch.org.
ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
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