ACLU Targets Domestic Partner Benefits Ban
DETROIT (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union says it will file a lawsuit to challenge a new Michigan law that bans public health insurance for domestic partners of some government employees.
The ACLU says it will discuss the case at a news conference Thursday in Detroit. Gov. Rick Snyder signed the law on Dec. 22.
The ban mostly affects local governments and public schools and applies to health insurance and other benefits for unmarried partners of the employees, same sex or not. The ACLU has called the law "mean-spirited and cruel."
Supporters say it will save tax dollars and follows the spirit of a statewide vote in 2004 in which Michigan residents defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
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