Governor Rick Snyder says same-sex marriages performed over the weekend in Michigan are legal, but they cannot be officially recognized by the state.
The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Rick Pluta has more.
Snyder says he has no choice because a federal appeals court suspended a judge’s decision that struck down Michigan’s same-sex marriage ban. The weddings all occurred Saturday before the appeals court order. Snyder says those couples, more than 300 of them, can say they’re legally married, but the appeals court order means the state can’t confer any of the benefits that go with that.
“We don’t believe we have legal authority to do that in the state of Michigan because, again, the law in the state of Michigan is a marriage of that type would not be recognized by the state,” he says.
Some officials have asked for federal recognition of the marriages that took place. And the American Civil Liberties Union says it may go to court to get the state to recognize those marriages.