metro

Marriage Equality

U.S. appeals court decision reverses
federal court ruling.

The tradition continues.

Ronelle Grier

Contributing Writer

E

fforts to legalize same-sex mar-
riage in Michigan and other
states were thwarted by the
recent 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to reverse
federal district court rulings in favor of
marriage equality in Michigan, Ohio,
Tennessee and Kentucky.
For Michigan residents, this means
the decision favoring marriage equal-
ity made last March by Federal District
Judge Bernard Friedman in the highly
publicized DeBoer v. Snyder case will
not be upheld. In that case, Hazel Park
nurses April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse
challenged the Michigan ban on same-
sex marriage with the goal of being
able to jointly adopt their three foster
children.
During a two-week trial last March,
plaintiff attorneys Dana Nessel, Carole
Stanyar and Ken
Mogill presented
expert witnesses from
a variety of fields who
offered evidence to
support that children
raised in same-sex
households fared just
as well as those raised
by heterosexual par-
ents.
Assistant Attorney General Kristin
Heyse represented the state of
Michigan, arguing the court does not
have the right to override the voters
who approved the Michigan Marriage
Amendment (MMA) in 2004.
Friedman overturned the 2004 ban
on same-sex marriage on the grounds it
violated the U.S. Constitution. Attorney
General Bill Schuette appealed the case
to the Sixth Circuit Court, which heard
oral arguments in August.
During the brief window between
Friedman's ruling and a next-day stay by
the appeals court preventing same-sex
marriages until they
ruled on the case,
about 300 hundred
gay and lesbian cou-
ples were married by
clergy, county clerks
and other officials.
Oakland County
Clerk Lisa Brown,
who issued numer-
ous marriage licenses
on the Saturday following Friedman's

Thursday, December 25

together we will
celebrate the strength
of our community.

Select and participate in a volunteer

service project at one of many

locations in metropolitan Detroit.

1

:1
Dana Nessel

Registration:
November 13 - December 10, 2014
detroitjcrc.org/mitzvanday2014

Questions? Call the Mitzvah Day
Hotline: 248-658-8252 or email
slippitt@jfmd.org

Join your fellow Mitzvah Day volunteers that morning
for coffee, conversation and a little nosh...

8am - 11am at MEX Restaurant
6675 Telegraph Road • Bloomfield Hills 48301

Mitzvah Day Co-chairs: Janet Berman • Seth Fisher • Micki Grossman

A Jewish
V V Community
AWARelations
• Council

Lisa Brown

Here
For Good

Jewish Federation

OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT

1956120

18

November 13 • 2014

ruling, was disheartened by the recent
decision.
"I'm disappointed and sad for the
families whose lives continue to be in
limbo:' Brown said, "and it's shameful
that our governor [Rick Snyder] and
attorney general [Schuette] continue to
waste taxpayer dollars to promote dis-
crimination:'
In their joint ruling, Sixth Circuit
Judges Jeffrey Sutton and Deborah
L. Cook took a position similar to
Schuette's in the original case; stating
the issue should be decided by the vot-
ers and not the courts.
In a vehement dissenting opinion,
Senior Sixth Circuit Judge Martha Craig
Daughtrey said sometimes the courts
have to step in when the democratic
process does not work, citing women's
right to vote and interracial couples'
right to marry as examples.
Elizabeth Sollish and Lisa Bargende
Sollish, a Huntington Woods couple
married on the day after Friedman's
decision, are resigned to remaining in
limbo until the issue is resolved by a
higher court. Their main concern is that
Elizabeth is unable to legally adopt the
two daughters they are raising together
because Lisa is their birth mother and
legal parent.
"We've positioned ourselves in all the
right ways, and hopefully, it will hap-
pen:' said Elizabeth Sollish.
Nessel said her clients and legal team
are disappointed yet determined, and
that they intend to appeal the case to the
U.S. Supreme Court.
In a statement issued by the ACLU
of Michigan, Executive Director Kary
Moss said, At the heart of this case is
the fundamental right of all couples to
enjoy the benefits and protections that
come with having a loving relationship
recognized in the law. Today's decision
goes against not only that principle, but
also goes against the clear tide of history
and other appellate courts:'
The ACLU will be appealing the deci-
sion to the United States Supreme Court,
which has thus far declined to hear
cases regarding same-sex marriage in
individual states.
This ruling, which was the first by a
federal appeals court against marriage
equality since the U.S. Supreme Court
struck down the Defense of Marriage
Act (DOMA) last year, applied to six
cases where a federal judge had ruled
in favor of marriage for same-sex
couples.

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