Lawyers for Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on Nov. 14 filed a six-page supplemental brief that said the 300 marriages performed for same-sex couples in Michigan in March 2014 are void, and that the couples are not entitled to state benefits resulting from those marriages.
The couples were wed shortly after a district court ruled that the state's gay marriage ban was unconstitutional. The marriages ceased when the Sixth District Appellate Court issued a stay on the ruling pending their review of the case. On Nov. 6, they issued their decision, which upheld bans in Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio.
Plaintiffs in the various lawsuits have pledged to appeal the Sixth Circuit ruling to the United States Supreme Court. Schuette's brief came after a district court ordered attorneys to file papers assessing the impact of the appeals court decision on pending litigation.
According to the Nov. 14 filing, the sole condition that allowed for the same-sex couples to marry was the initial district court opinion ruling that said Michigan's ban was unconstitutional.
"Now that the Sixth Circuit has reversed the district court's decision in DeBoer, that condition cannot be met, and Plaintiffs' marriages are therefore void," said the filing, which further states that the state cannot be compelled to provide benefits going to lawfully-wed couples in the state. "…[From] a legal standpoint, because the marriages rested solely on the district court's erroneous decision, which has now been reversed, it is as if the marriages never existed, and Plaintiffs' requests for benefits attendant to a legal marriage must be denied."
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder initially acknowledged in March that the 300 couples were legally wed, but said they were not entitled to the benefits. The Obama administration subsequently said that the federal government would recognize the marriages.
