Hahaha. On your knees, indeed, fundies.
A federal judge stopped Michigan's hate-ban against same-sex partners getting health insurance from coming into effect today.
U.S. District Court Judge David M. Lawson found that the law discriminated by forcing cities, counties, school districts, and community colleges to cancel family benefits for gay and lesbian employees in committed relationships while heterosexual employees had the ability to marry their partners to maintain health insurance. Same-sex couples cannot marry in Michigan.
It's only a temporary injunction, but I suspect it is indicative of many more similar rulings to come.
Today's decision relies in part on the U.S. Supreme Court's Wednesday decision in Windsor v. United States, which struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional. Judge Lawson recognized, as the Supreme Court did, that the Constitution forbids the government from passing laws with a motive to discriminate against gay people. This is the first federal court decision applying the Supreme Court's reasoning to protect same-sex couples from discrimination in other contexts.
The law was particularly irrational because it allowed municipalities to provide health insurance coverage for other family members - cousins, aunts, nephews - but excluded same-sex domestic partners.
According to the ACLU press release about the case:
This is the first federal court decision applying the Supreme Court's reasoning to protect same-sex couples from discrimination in other contexts.
Hey, it's only been two days!
The Windsor decision said that gay married couples can't be treated unequally in the sense of the 14th amendment (at least that's my interpretation). This opinion seems (and seeks) to extend that to unmarried same-sex couples, at least in states where they are forbidden to marry because of state law.
The case is similar to a case in Arizona, Diaz v Brewer, where the Ninth Circuit previously had stayed a law also banning same-sex couples who were state employees from being eligible for health insurance for their partners. But that ruling was not based on Windsor, since it came down almost two years ago now. The Supreme Court just upheld the stay in Diaz yesterday, but as far as I know did not state on what basis the stay was upheld.
The equality floodgates may be about to open.
12:02 PM PT: Link to PDF of decision