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Judge Friedman Declares Michigan's Same-Sex Marriage Ban Unconstitutional


UPDATE: Wastenaw and Oakland County Clerk will open up at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 22 to begin issuing marriage licenses.

UPDATE: According to Tom Hillen of NBC affiliate WOOD TV8, Muskegon County Clerk Nancy Waters will also be issuing marriage licenses tomorrow at the Harbor Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Muskegon.

U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman declared Michigan's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, friday later afternoon. No stay was issued immediately in the decision, however Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed an emergency request for stay of the ruling.
"No court record of this proceeding could ever fully convey," the decision reads, "the personal sacrifice of these two plaintiffs who seek to ensure that the state may no longer impair the rights of their children and the thousands of others now being raised by same-sex couples."
"It is the Court's fervent hope that these children will grow up 'to understand the integrity and closeness of their own family and its concord with other families in their community and in their daily lives.' Windsor, 133 S. Ct. at 2694. Today's decision is a step in that direction, and affirms the enduring principle that regardless of whoever finds favor in the eyes of the most recent majority, the guarantee of equal protection must prevail."
See the full decision here.

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