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sheshe2

(83,751 posts) Fri Jan 16, 2015, 10:58 PM Jan 2015

You Can't Just Take Away Someone's Marriage

4 Reasons SCOTUS May Have Taken the Michigan Case

A federal judge has ruled that Michigan cannot revoke marriage from gay and lesbian couples who received marriage licenses during a 24-hour period last May when the state performed them.

Updated: Supreme Court to Hear Marriage Cases

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a series of marriage cases, included among them a pivotal case out of Michigan, where a federal judge ruling on a related case just outlined the reasons that now is the time for the justices to intervene.

Earlier this week, District Judge Mark Goldsmith in Michigan ruled that the state must recognize the marriages of the approximately 320 same-sex couples who obtained marriage licenses during a one-day window when such unions were legal last May.

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Goldsmith's ruling is infused with irritation at the state's attempt to nullify existing marriage licenses. The state's argument is that the licenses issued in May were in some way "conditional" or "temporary," an argument that Goldsmith just isn't buying:

Defendants’ notion that Plaintiffs’ marriages were somehow “conditionally valid” ... is made out of whole cloth. There is nothing in the record to indicate that the marriage licenses that Michigan county clerks issued to Plaintiffs contained any language that was conditional. Nor does Michigan law recognize any concept of a conditional marriage.

Read More http://www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2015/01/16/4-arguments-could-make-supreme-court-take-michigans-marriage-c