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

