During the 2004 Presidential Campaign, 11 states voted to ban gay marriage. Only 2 of these states were "blue states", voting for Kerry over Bush. One was Oregon, the other Michigan. Today the Michigan Supreme Court, in a 5-2 ruling, stated that the ban
against gay marriage also blocks governments and state universities from offering health insurance to the partners of gay workers.
Note. The court ruled that governments and state universities are blocked from offering health insurance to partners of gay workers. Sorry, its not even optional.
Michigan may be considered a blue state when it comes to presidential elections, but the 5 judges who ruled for the prohibition are all Republicans ...
in their opinion, the five majority justices ruled that "the marriage amendment...which states 'the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage of similar union for any purpose,' prohibits public employers from providing health-insurance benefits to their employees' qualified same-sex domestic partners." The 34-page opinion was authored by Justice Stephen Markman and signed by the court's other four Republicans as well (emphasis mine).
What's most frightening to me is the
prohibits public employers from providing health-insurance benefits to their employees' qualified same-sex domestic partners.
part. Which one is it. Are they qualified or not?
Equally exasperating, there are numerous educational institutions and local governments in Michigan that have benefit policies covering hundreds of gay couples. Some of this coverage dates from the early 1990's. After the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in February 2007 that the gay marriage ban also banned gay partner coverage, relationships in policies were reworded to work around the prohibition. For example, changing "domestic partnership" to "other qualified adults".
The real question is who brought the suit? According to 365gay.com, this all started back in 2005 when Attorney General Mike Cox(R) decided to enforce the 2004 gay marriage ban
Soon after the amendment was passed in 2004 Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), acting on the advice of Attorney General Mike Cox (R), terminated domestic partner benefits that had been won by state unions.
Cox also directed University of Michigan and Wayne State University and the city of Kalamazoo to shut down their benefits programs to same-sex couples.
Last July, the Michigan Supreme Court tossed a law suit filed by 17 taxpayers that attempted to challenge Ann Arbors school district's same-sex benefits policies. In that case, the court ruled that the taxpayers had no legal standing.
Today's ruling seems to be the result of AttyGen Mike Cox's motives. Unfortunately, having been reelected as AttyGen in 2006, Michigan is stuck with Cox until 2010. Maybe by then Michigan will turn a bit more blue. Its a wonder what a few new judges and a pro civil liberties AttyGen can do to extend civil rights. After all, it is also obvious what a few judges and an anti-civil liberties AttyGen can do to contract them