22 May 9 • 2019
jn
continued from page 20
jews d
in
the
working with the ACLU in Detroit. In
1985, he was a lawyer for the Michigan
ACLU in a joint lawsuit with the Detroit
NAACP that successfully overturned a
Dearborn ordinance excluding non-res-
idents (in effect, blacks from nearby
Detroit) from using the city’
s parks.
Sedler has disputed all religious
displays on public property as a gov-
ernmental endorsement of religion. He
successfully challenged a nativity scene
at the Birmingham City Hall. He later
had a similar action against Dearborn,
but the city added figures of Santa
Claus and reindeer to its display, as
permitted by the U.S. Supreme Court.
He notes that under current law, the
Chanukah menorah in Cadillac Square
in Downtown Detroit is permitted
because the area is a public forum,
not a city hall. Sedler also opposed
Christian prayer at high school com-
mencements at two cities in western
Michigan.
In 1985, Sedler represented a white
Dearborn couple with a black foster
child they wanted to adopt. Michigan,
at the time, opposed cross-racial child
placement, and the state literally tore
the boy away from the family he had
been with for two years. In court,
Sedler prevailed and the child was
returned and adopted.
MARRIAGE EQUALITY
This case was a forerunner of perhaps
his most famous local case involving
adopting children — which led to the
legalization of gay marriage.
The DeBoer v. Snyder case involved a
lesbian couple, both nurses, each with
adopted children. After a frightening
close-call traffic incident, both women
realized the need to adopt each other’
s
children as a safeguard in case one
of the mothers unexpectedly died. In
Michigan, however, unmarried couples,
regardless of gender, were not permit-
ted to adopt children. The nurses’
three
lawyers included Dana Nessel, once a
law student of Sedler.
Nessel asked her former professor for
help in the case, and he suggested argu-
ing that the policy was discriminatory
against not only the parents, but also the
children involved. In U.S. District Court
in Detroit, Judge Bernard Friedman saw
it differently, saying what was ultimately
being contested was the ban against
marriages for same-sex couples. The
case eventually led to the U.S. Supreme
Court overturning laws forbidding mar-
riage by same-sex couples.
“One thing I learned in the four
years of litigating the DeBoer case was
to really appreciate the legal right to
marry,
” Sedler said.
Although he has received awards
during his long career, so has his
wife, Rozanne, who, as a mental
health professional, was a member
of the Michigan Attorney Grievance
Committee for six years. The couple
have also won joint recognitions, from
the Oakland County ACLU in 2002
(where Rozanne has served as pres-
ident) and the Metropolitan Detroit
Chapter of the American Jewish
Committee in 2011. She retired in 2008
after 33 years at Jewish Family Service.
In 2018, Nessel was elected Michigan
attorney general and has appointed her
former professor as a special assistant
attorney general, an unpaid position
where he will lend advice to the office.
“When I was a young law student at
WSU Law School,
” Nessel said, “Bob
Sedler instilled in me the belief that I
could utilize a career in law to fight for
rights on behalf of those who needed
it most. Years later, Bob volunteered to
advise our legal team as we prosecuted
one of the most significant civil rights
cases of our time, and he walked arm-
in-arm with me into the U.S. Supreme
Court where our case changed the arc
of history for millions of Americans.
”
Sedler said his upcoming Champion
of Justice award “is very meaningful
to me because it is a recognition of all
that I have done here in Michigan.
”
Nessel will make the presentation at
the Michigan Association for Justice
dinner.
Prominent Detroit attorney Eugene
Driker noted, “Bob Sedler represents
the very best of the legal profession and
service to the public. He epitomizes the
premier constitutional
scholar.
”
At the upcoming
event, the lawyer’
s
group will also present
its Judicial Excellence
Award to Judge Elizabeth
L. Gleicher, who has
served on the Michigan
Court of Appeals since
2007. She is also a former
student of Sedler.
It will, in addition,
honor its outgoing pres-
ident, Debra A. Freid of
Saginaw. For information
on the banquet event, go
to michiganjustice.org/events or
call (517) 321-3073. ■
Gleicher
Freid
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