Cox files brief in Prop. 8 federal appeal case

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox on Friday joined with nine other state attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the federal appeal of a ruling overturning California’s ban on same-sex marriage.

That ruling, by a federal district judge in San Francisco, found that defining marriage as between one man and one woman violated several Constitutional standards, including the equal protection clause. The case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, is being appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The amicus brief, which was one of 26 filed in the case on behalf of those seeking an appeal, argues that the ruling in Perry violates state’s rights by imposing one state’s definition of marriage on the other states.

This is not Cox’s first foray into federal litigation. Shortly after President Barack Obama signed landmark health care reform legislation, Cox joined with other AG’s in challenging it. And recently, he and other AG’s sought to intervene in the controversial Arizona immigration law SB 1070.

Nor is this the first time the term-limited Republican has entered the arena over marriage equality issues. Cox successfully argued all the way to Michigan’s Supreme Court that a 2004 ballot amendment to the Constitution which prohibited marriage as anything other than one man and one woman also prohibited public employers from providing domestic partner benefits to same-sex partners. As a result of that case, Michigan’s public employers had to institute a sexual orientation-neutral domestic partner benefit program.

Cox’s move was condemned by the LGBT activist group Equality Michigan Action Network.

“In his role as Attorney General, Mike Cox has never been a friend of equality and fairness for everyone in the state of Michigan,” stated Alicia Skillman, Executive Director of Equality Michigan Action Network. “So, we are not surprised that he would use his narrow view to encourage the limiting of rights in other parts of the country.”