On Friday, a federal judge ruled the 10-year-old ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. This time, it appears the judge ruled that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (which I believe has always been the strongest arguement).
Yeah for the residents of Michigan.
The AG of Michigan, Bill Schuette, has already filed an “emergency” request for stay and appeal of the ruling. The article does not mention his political party affiliation (anyone for a wild guess)?
Note: Apologies to “Fun with Flags” aficionados for not showing the Michigan Flag, but it is really boring, IMHO.
Please share widely!
Detroit Free Press:
Detroit Free Press again:
And should hurt Snyder since his base will force him to fight it and he will
lose independents and moderates on the issue.
And should hurt Snyder since his base will force him to fight it and he will
lose independents and moderates on the issue.
And they’re all of the rabid type. So the appeal is not surprising in the least.
The AG of Michigan is not part of the administration. Like MA he is popularly and separately elected. It would therefore be possible to elect an AG not of the Governor’s party.
I didn’t mean to imply he was a Snyder appointee, just that the top offices in the MI government are held by the worst type of Republicans. Tells us a lot about the MI electorate.
We had a horrible year, but the two Senators are both Dems.
Don’t paint the MI electorate with a broad brush based on the current administration. The previous governor was a Dem (Granholm) and it has been a long time since the state went R in the presidential.
And Sen. Carl Levin has been one of those lifer incumbents. Are there any strong Dems lining up to replace him when he retires?
I’m from MI, so I know the political history of the state. From my point of view, it’s slowly changed from a liberalish state to a conservative and downright nasty state.
Presidentially blue since 1992
Very strong rural/urban/suburban divide. Rural areas and urban areas tend to be economically populist, suburbs economically conservative while rural areas are socially conservative and the suburbs are a mixed bag. This has been my experience living in Chicago and contrasting it to the suburb my in laws live in. Their subdivision was evenly divided between Obama/Romney and Biggert/Foster in 2012. He had no issues getting his last two congregations to become reconciling (Pro-LGBTQ) but he got pushback defending Obamacare and gun control when he preached on those topics.
Wisconsin and Michigan are presidential blue but elect strongly conservative state legislatures-they are the inverse of West Virginia and Kentucky in that regard. Unions still away primary elections out here and some Republicans even court them (the IL Teachers have a beef with Quinn over pensions and backed his most moderate GOP opponent who lost to a Romney clone named Rauner). Very polarized, sometimes block by block.
link
How conservative is it?
It’s a fairly divided court these days. 16 active judges, 8 of whom were G.W. Bush appointees, only 5 appointed by Democrats (3 Clinton, 2 Obama). A lot may depend on the panel. I’d figure the 6th Circuit will hear this case en banc at some point.