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 PURCHASE IN STORE OR ONLINE a f r iend. a teacher . a chef . A FATHER I S: The per f ect way to say, “THANKS DAD.” RECEI VE A $25 BONUS CARD with a pur chase of $100 in gif t car ds Of f er val i d unt i l 6/ 16/ 19