Michigan Won't Recognize Saturday's Same-Sex Marriages - East Idaho News
News

Michigan Won’t Recognize Saturday’s Same-Sex Marriages

  Published at

Getty 032614 GayMarriage?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1395863536349Digital Vision/Thinkstock(LANSING, Mich.) — Gov. Rick Snyder said Wednesday that all same-sex couples in Michigan who were married on Saturday, March 22, were married legally, but that their benefits would be suspended until an appeal is heard regarding the state’s same-sex marriage law.

On Saturday morning, a U.S. district court struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Later that afternoon, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the ruling until a decision was made as to whether the district court’s ruling should stand.

“After comprehensive legal review…we have concluded that same-sex couples were legally married at county clerk offices in the time period between U.S. District Judge Freidman’s ruling and the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporary stay of that ruling,” Snyder said.

Despite the legality of the marriages, Snyder said that “the rights tied to these marriages are suspended until the stay is lifted or Judge Friedman’s decision is upheld on appeal.” The governor said that the stay “brings Michigan law on this issue back into effect.”

After a similar series of events in Utah earlier this year, Attorney General Eric Holder said publicly that the marriages issued between the initial court ruling and the stay would be recognized by the federal government.

Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio

SUBMIT A CORRECTION