Same-sex marriage milestone

After the U.S. Supreme Court let stand same-sex marriage laws in five states today, Michigan supporters are waiting to join the club.

But the proverbial jury is still out.

The Supreme Court declined to hear five cases regarding marriage equality in Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Indiana, and Wisconsin. That means the lower court rulings stand, allowing same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage is legal in 24 states plus the District of Columbia, with six more likely to follow.

Experts are eying Michigan’s appeal pending before the U.S. 6^th Circuit Court of Appeals as key toward what happens next not only in Michigan, but what the high court may do next year.

In Michigan’s appeal, the state is arguing a federal district court judge erred when he struck down Michigan’s ban in March. For a brief period in March, following the ruling by Judge Bernard Friedman, more than 300 same-sex couples were able to legally get married in the state.

“DeBoer v. Snyder is a case that legal experts have anticipated could reach the Supreme Court because it is the only case that has had a trial,” says Sommer Foster, director of political advocacy at Equality Michigan. “We look forward to the 6th Circuit decision and we hope that the court rules soon.  I am not sure of the impact that (the Supreme Court) decision has on the 6th Circuit, but with 30 states allowing the freedom to marry and an additional 51 million Americans now living in states where folks can marry whom they love, we can see that marriage equality will become a reality in this state sooner or later.”

Kari Moss, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, was more cautious in her analysis of the role the DeBoer case might play in getting a Supreme Court hearing the right to marriage equality.

“I hate to try to read tea leaves when it comes to what the Supreme Court might do,” she said in a phone interview.

But she added, the move by the Supreme Court to refuse to hear the pending cases is significant.

“They had an opportunity to take up the question but declined. They essentially have allowed marriage equality in those states,” Moss said. “It shows the court has a level of comfort with marriage equality and indicates they did not feel the issue had percolated enough in the states.”

Moss said it is not uncommon for the nation’s high court to allow significant legal issues to bounce around in the lower courts awaiting distinct splits in the various appeals’ circuits before taking up cases.

“It’s certainly possible the 6^Th Circuit will consider the Supreme Court decision as relevant in their decision making process,” she said.

Moss acknowledged the importance the Michigan case carried because of its extensive legal record.

“The state has to be able to justify the ban with concrete evidence,” she said. “They weren’t able to do that. They had one expert disavowed by the university he was working for, and another expert who was rejected by the judge as an expert.”

Politically, the decision came the day after Bill Schuette, Michigan’s Republican attorney general, told Michigan Public Radio he expected the Supreme Court to hear an appeal from Utah. The court did the opposite today.

Schuette’s Democratic opponent in the general election, Mark Totten, issued a statement Monday saying the decision by the Supreme Court put Michigan’s position “on the wrong side of the Constitution.”