The family at the heart of the case.

To be sure, there will be a "battle of the experts" in Downtown Detroit this week and next at the Theodore Levin federal courthouse.  Today is the commencement of the trial ordered by U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman between the lesbian couple seeking to overturn Michigan's adoption and same-sex marriage laws on equal protection grounds, and Michigan's Governor and Attorney General who seek to enforce our state law ban on such arrangements.

Of course there is much publicity surrounding the case today on the Internet; and for a very good reason.  This case stands out among all the same-sex cases percolating across our nation for the reason that Judge Friedman declined to grant either side's dispositive motions back in October, electing to evaluate evidence in the case during a scheduled two-week trial.

Now, bring on the experts.  Both sides claim to be able to support their case with "scientific" evidence.

For their part, the lesbian couple -April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse- plan to capitalize on expert testimony from new studies that conclude children raised by same-sex couples have just as much promise and opportunity as children raised by traditional parents.  Their lawyer told the Freep yesterday:

We have sociologists, child growth experts, and psychologists (who) uniformly agree that child outcomes for children raised by gays and lesbians is just as promising as those kids raised by heterosexuals.

 The State of Michigan's legal team has its own arsenal of experts to provide testimony in this case.  In addition, it has been beating the drum that Judge Friedman, sitting in federal court, should not be making this decision because the voters of Michigan decided the issue via voter initiative back in 2004.

Judge Friedman had the opportunity to make a legal ruling on the merits of the respective positions last October, but ordered a trial instead.  We here at the Law Blogger now wonder whether this trial will be an exposition of modern child development theory, or a parade of junk science.  Stay tuned to be enlightened on these issues.

Whatever Judge Friedman decides, he will be appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati sometime later this year; the case could be headed to the SCOTUS.

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By: Timothy P. Flynn

Earlier this year, United States District Court Judge Bernard Friedman held in abeyance the case challenging Michigan's ban on gay marriage until SCOTUS decided the United States v Windsor case in June.  Now, in the wake of Windsor -which struck down the Defense of Marriage Act banning federal benefits to gay couples- a hearing has been scheduled for mid-October in the Michigan case.

April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, a lesbian couple from Hazel Park, filed the federal law suit because Michigan law prevents them from adopting each other's children.  The Michigan Attorney General is opposing the suit, asserting the couple's claim merely seeks to avert a valid Michigan law: the 2004 constitutional amendment defining a legal marriage as solely between a man and woman.

This case has been attracting much attention with Judge Friedman allowing several groups to file briefs in the case.  The Michigan Catholic Conference, on one side, asserts that the 2004 Marriage Amendment advances a valid state interest: the preservation and proliferation of family life through traditional marriage.  On the other side, a group of law professors at the Cooley Law School, along with other constitutional law scholars from across the country, assert that Michigan's Marriage Amendment should be subjected to a "heightened scrutiny" on the basis the amendment does not advance a legitimate state interest.

Whatever Judge Friedman does in this case, his decision will be appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati and then on to the SCOTUS, with perhaps a post-Windsor companion case or two. We here at the Law Blogger knew that it would not be long before Michigan joined in the fray of what has become the civil rights issue of our time.

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