Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette's office has delivered the state's defense of its same-sex marriage ban to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court will hear arguments in the case next month.
The state’s 59-page brief focuses largely on states’ rights. The attorney general argues that the case is not specifically about marriage, but rather who gets to decide the question. The brief says the U.S. Constitution is silent on the issue, so the decision on defining who can get married is left to states or their voters.
Michigan voters approved the ban in 2004. A lesbian couple is challenging the law, saying it violates their equal protection rights and the equal protections rights of the children they are raising together but can't legally adopt.
(Michigan Public Radio Network)