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Gov. Snyder's DHS director no friend of LGBT community

By Tara Cavanaugh

On Jan. 6 the new Gov. Rick Snyder announced the appointment of Maura Corrigan, a Michigan Supreme Court Justice, as the new director of the Department of Human Services.
This is troubling because Corrigan has a history of not supporting LGBT issues, said Marc Brewer, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party.
"Corrigan has been militantly opposed to adoption of children by gay parents and has used her power in the court system to actively oppose that," said Brewer. "She's demonstrated time and again that she is no friend of the (LGBT) community."
In a June 10, 2002 column for the Detroit Free Press, Brian Dickerson wrote that Corrigan "encouraged the chief of the Washtenaw County Circuit Court, Judge Archie Brown, to put the kibosh on gay couples who want to adopt," even though "(No) one directly affected by the practice seems inclined to challenge it."
What likely encouraged Corrigan was an article in the Lansing State Journal earlier that year about Washtenaw County's practice of allowing same-sex couples to adopt.
Dickerson said Brown, who had no authority over the other judges in the county, then ordered the Washtenaw circuit clerical staff to not accept any more adoption petitions from unmarried couples.
The result of that decision, Dickerson wrote, was that more children will have only one legal parent: "The court's refusal to grant those partners parental status simply means that the children they help raise will grow up without the medical insurance coverage, Social Security protection and other benefits children in other two-parent families enjoy."
Two years later, Jay Kaplan, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Project, wrote about the incident for BTL: "What is especially unusual about (it) is that Chief Justice Corrigan acted without a case properly before her – an action many would consider the hallmark of judicial activism."
Brewer said Snyder's appointment of Brian Rooney as Corrigan's deputy director will not temper her political views. Rooney is a lawyer who works in Ann Arbor for the Thomas More Law Center, whose purpose "is to be the sword and shield for people of faith, providing legal representation without charge to defend and protect Christians and their religious beliefs in the public square," according to its Web site.
Snyder described Corrigan as "a true champion of children and families," according to the Detroit Free Press. According to her biography on the state Supreme Court Web site, Corrigan has won numerous awards for her work with children and families, including the Michigan Children's Award in 2008 and the Congressional Coalition on Adoption "Angels in Adoption" Award in 2005.
"She has long been in the judicial system an advocate on behalf of children," Brewer said. "Sadly as part of those efforts she's been adamantly opposed to allowing gay parents to adopt. I surmise that's motivating her (to take the position). The DHS does a lot more than (adoption) and she is not qualified to administer those programs," Brewer said.
"The administration has termed her an advocate for children. I hope she is an advocate for all children, even children of LGBT parents," said Kaplan.
Gov. John Engler appointed Corrigan to the Michigan Court of Appeals in 1992. She was elected to the state Supreme Court in 1998. She served two terms as Chief Justice during her time on the state Supreme Court.
Corrigan's biography also says she is a member of the Federalist Society, which "is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order," according to its Web site.
Corrigan's absence from the court left three Democrat and three Republican judges. Snyder announced her replacement Jan. 11: Judge Brian Zahra.
In a Michigan Democratic Party press release, Brewer denounced Zahra: "We are extremely disappointed in Governor Snyder's decision to name Brian Zahra to the Michigan Supreme Court. Governor Snyder promised to be a moderate governor interested in bipartisanship. This appointment goes against all of those promises."
"Brian Zahra is an extremist judge who will protect insurance companies and corporations on the bench. He will move this new Court even further to the right. Governor Snyder had a chance to appoint a fair, moderate judge and he chose not to do so."

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