UPDATE: Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum on Monday asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to declare Saturday’s gay marriages in Michigan legal for all federal benefits, Orlander Brand-Williams reports in the Detroit News.
"The department is closely monitoring the situation," spokeswoman Allison Pierce told the News Monday.
In January, the Justice Department said the U.S. government would recognize 1,300 same-sex marriages performed in Utah during the 17-day period before the U.S Supreme Court stayed the ruling pending further appeals.
EARLIER: Snyder, Schuette Refuse To Say How State Will Treat Saturday's Gay Marriages
About 100 Michigan couples remain caught in legal limbo following the order by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that halted of a lower court ruling late Saturday that declared Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, Tresa Baldas reports in the Free Press.
While there were some 100 marriages, a total of about 300 same-sex marriage licenses were handed out across Michigan Saturday.
Meanwhile, officials refuses won’t say if the state recognizes the marriages or not. Neither Attorney General Bill Schuette, who requested the stay and who opposes gay marriage, nor Gov. Rick Snyder would say Sunday whether Michigan plans to recognize the marriages. They are waiting first for a decision from the 6th Circuit, which granted a temporary stay until Wednesday while it considers whether to grant a permanent stay pending the appeal process.
No hearing has been scheduled.
Baldas provides examples of several couples whose lives remain up in the air, including those of Jennifer Chapin-Smith of Ann Arbor, who married Alexi Chapin-Smith.
She and her spouse filed their state and federal income taxes at 4 p.m. Saturday, one hour before the 6th Circuit issued the stay. She noted that she and Alexi had previously married in Maryland in January of 2013 in a Quaker ceremony and got married in Michigan for the legal recognition here.
“This is our fourth wedding actually,” Jennifer Chapin-Smith said. “We’re already married in the eyes of God and our religious community, our family, friends and our neighbors. It’s just the state of Michigan that wouldn’t recognize reality. It’s frustrating. Why can’t the state recognize what is real and truthful?”
