Marriage Equality case in Michigan goes to trial in February

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Yet another marriage equality case is heading to trial in the courts, this time in Michigan. Case Against Michigan Ban on Gay Unions Is Sent to Trial:

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that a case contesting Michigan’s ban
on same-sex marriage would go to trial early next year, one among some 30 such challenges playing out in courthouses around the nation.

Here, advocates for same-sex marriage and even some opponents had speculated that the judge, Bernard A. Friedman, of the Eastern District of Michigan, might go further and overturn the state’s nine-year-old constitutional amendment on marriage as early as Wednesday.

[A] representative for Bill Schuette, the
Michigan attorney general, whose office has defended the state’s ban,
issued a directive to county clerks in the event that the judge ruled
against the state, advising them that they were forbidden to issue
marriage licenses to same-sex couples until appeals were completed.

In the end, Judge Friedman delayed an answer to the issue, instead
suggesting that a trial, set for Feb. 25, would examine a central legal
question surrounding the issue in Michigan, but also elsewhere: whether
the rationales for a ban on same-sex marriage serve a legitimate state
interest.

The New Mexico Supreme Court will hear arguments on
October 23 in a case which may determine the right to marry for same-sex
couples in the state.

A special session in the Hawaii Legislature
to move forward a bill that would legalize gay marriage is scheduled to
begin October 28.