A U.S. District judge recognized on Thursday the legality of the same-sex couples who got married on March and ordered the state government to grant to this couples all the benefits and protections under the law.
"Defendants are preliminarily enjoined from refusing to recognize the marital status of Plaintiffs and all other same-sex couples who were lawfully married in Michigan after the district court's ruling authorizing such marriages in DeBoer and before the issuance of the stay by the Sixth Circuit on March 22, 2014 in that case," judge Mark A. Goldsmith said in the opinion issued. "Defendants shall afford all such couples all the protections and benefits as are mandated or authorized by Michigan law for all couples whose marriages are validly solemnized under Michigan law."
The plaintiffs were eight same-sex Michigan couples who were married after a federal judge struck down the state ban on same-sex marriage. The ruling was made on the case Marsha Caspar, et al., v. Richard Snyder, et al.
This new ruling comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned lower court rulings in Michigan, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky that deemed bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.
"Even though the court decision that required Michigan to allow same-sex couples to marry ha snow been reversed on appeal, the same-sex couples who were married in Michigan during a brief period when such marriages were authorized acquired a status tat state officials may not ignore absent some compelling interest — a constitutional hurdle that the defense does nit even attempt to surmount," Goldsmith said in the order.
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