Snyder made clear the state thought the marriages — conducted between the ruling and the stay — were legal, but did not go so far as to grant the newly-married couples full marriage rights in the state. 

After Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette’s request for a temporary stay was granted Saturday evening, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided to continue the motion until a decision is made by the higher court.

“After comprehensive legal review of state law and all recent court rulings, we have concluded that same-sex couples were legally married at county clerk offices,” Snyder said in the statement. However, the couples’ marriage benefits are suspended until “further court rulings are issued on this matter,” the statement said. 

The state’s current stance on the matter will prevent couples from taking on the usual benefits of married couples, such as filing taxes as a married couple, insurance coverage and employee benefits for the time being.

“If you are married and you own a car and you transfer ownership to your spouse, there is no tax to pay. Same-sex couples have to pay,” MSU law professor Mae Kuykendall said.

“The governor didn’t want to say (Saturday’s marriages are) invalid and will be ignored, but he didn’t want to treat them as full marriages."

According to Kuykendall, Michigan’s same-sex marriages would still be recognized in other jurisdictions where gay marriage is legal, such as New York, even if they are not yet recognized in Michigan.

A similar incident occurred in the United States v. Windsor case last year, Kuykendall said, where Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg referred to the marriages under the new ruling as “skim milk” marriages.

In a statement released Wednesday, Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum asked Snyder and Schuette to “put Michigan on the right side of history.”

“When it comes to making Michigan a forward-looking state, Governor Snyder and Attorney General Schuette need to lead or get out of the way,” Byrum said in a statement.