US: Michigan same-sex marriage ban reinstated by order of stay in appeals court

Mar 23 2014
Written by Aaron Day

Not long after a judge declared Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriages unconstitutional, an appeals court has now issued a stay against the ruling.

Ruling on Friday, US District Judge Bernard Friedman suggested that upholding a ban on same-sex marriage would be unfair to the children of gay couples, and said it was unconstitutional.

However, clerks in Michigan are now being told to cease issuing marriage licenses to hundreds of same-sex couples after a motion of stay has once more temporarily reinstated the ban.

As reported by Michigan Live, the US 6th Circuit Court announced: “To allow a more reasoned consideration of the motion to stay, it is ordered that the district court’s judgment is temporarily stayed until Wednesday.”

The initial ruling was the fifth in recent months in which a ban has been declared unconstitutional, following Texas, Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia.

Bishop Paul J Bradley of the Catholic Diocese of Kalamazoo released a statement on the day saying: ”With the stroke of a pen, the meaning of marriage, one of society’s most sacred institutions and the very foundation of the family, has been redefined in our state.”