Appellate court reverses course, issues stay on same-sex marriages until Wednesday

[brooklynite]

Source: Detroit Free Press

LANSING — The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, after first signaling it would not intervene in Michigan’s gay marriage case until Tuesday, posted a new order late Saturday imposing a stay in the case until Wednesday.

That means U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman’s Friday order declaring unconstitutional Michigan’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage is temporarily stayed, and clerks will no longer be able to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples before Wednesday at the earliest.

“To allow a more reasoned consideration of the motion to stay, it is ordered that the district court judgment is temporarily stayed until Wednesday,” the 6th Circuit said in an order late Saturday.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20140322/NEWS06/303220063/Appellate-court-reverses-course-issues-stay-same-sex-marriages-until-Wednesday

[Faygo Kid]

1. Unsurprising, but unfortunate

Atty Gen Schuette is pandering to the tea partiers by pushing for this as he runs for re-election. He may win re-election, but he's going to lose this fight.

[Timez Squarez]

8. All Tea Partiers are going to lose, and lose big.

You can count Schuette among the big fat losers of 2014.

[iandhr]

14. The flip side is you don't want to have people get married and then...

… have the possibility of their marriage being invalidated.

[SoapBox]

2. Spineless fucking jellyfish...

They could have just let it go but oh no...SOBs.

[SoapBox]

3. p.s...

If you or I tried to go to "court" on a weekend, would we get the same prompt service?

Hell no.

[Timez Squarez]

9. Nope, and State of Michigan was not harmed either

so the stay is not justified.

The religious right fuckwits needs to be moved to Bikini Atoll and remain there for their natural lives and ensure that the gene pool dies.

[blkmusclmachine]

4. ,

,

[Swede Atlanta]

5. Even as a gay man I believe that anytime a District Court judge.....

issues a ruling in favor of marriage equality the ruling should be stayed for at least 30 days pending appeal. Appeal will not always happen as in the case of New Jersey and Kentucky but in most cases where states have enacted legislation or adopted constitutional amendments prohibiting marriage equality, the state will appeal.

While it is wonderful for a handful of couples to be able to marry and their marriages would likely never be rescinded, it is better to stay the decision and await the outcome of the appellate court.

I know it is frustrating but it is a better course of action.

[davidpdx]

10. That makes sense

I was saying in another post last night that I thought a higher court would step in and stay the decision. Even if they hadn't until Monday all anyone would have been able to do on Saturday is get the marriage license (the article in the other thread said there is a three day wait in Michigan).

A final decision without any legal limbo is what is going to make the difference. The fact that there are so many decisions to overturn the laws is encouraging.

[Jim Lane]

11. Very astute analysis. People confuse the stay with the underlying issue.

Suppose the city exercises eminent domain to take part of your property because they want to widen a road. You fight in court and lose. When you appeal, do you want the initial ruling stayed, so the city can't chop down the 100-year-old tree there? Under those circumstances, it would be obvious that a stay was appropriate, even if the city had a very good case for being entitled to take the land.

In the same-sex marriage case, a court's likely reasoning would be along these lines: "If we grant the stay, and the marriage-equality side ultimately wins, then the people affected can get married, they'll just have to wait a little longer. If we deny the stay, and the homophobe side ultimately wins, then we'll have some couples with marriages that were officially solemnized but that don't conform to the law -- a messy and confusing situation. Let's just grant the stay and be safe."

Incidentally, it's not uncommon that a stay is granted on condition -- the side taking the appeal must prosecute the appeal on an expedited basis, so that the additional wait is no longer than it needs to be. I don't know if that was done here, but it would be reasonable to impose that condition on the state.

[totodeinhere]

6. This is only a temporary setback. It's the two steps ahead one step back thing.

But full rights for LGBT's nationwide is inevitable. It's still going to take some time to get there but progress has been faster than I could have even dreamed only a few years ago.

[OKNancy]

7. kick

[former9thward]

13. You may be more comfortable posting on another site.

He overturned Michigan's ban on gay marriage. What is POS about that?

[former9thward]

17. The idiotic things people post on this site.

He did not renege, NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU SHOUT. His decision was stayed by a higher court -- the Sixth Circuit.

[brooklynite]

15. UNREC

However you feel, how is his picture relevant?