MEDIA ADVISORY ONLY (not for publication)

Wayne State University Law School Distinguished Professor Robert Sedler is available to the media to discuss constitutional issues related to any of the more than 40 same-sex marriage cases underway in 25 states, including Michigan.

Among those cases, Sedler, a constitutional law expert, is a consultant to attorney Dana Nessel, a 1994 Wayne Law alumna, and Carole Stanyar, who represent Hazel Park residents April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse in the Michigan case before U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman. Wayne Law Adjunct Professor Kenneth Mogill, a partner with Mogill Posner & Cohen, also is a consultant on the case.

Whatever the outcome of the case, an appeal is expected, and the women's lawsuit against the state of Michigan likely will end up in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Should that occur, the DeBoer case will join the ranks of similar cases, all challenging states' bans on same-sex marriage, now in the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and 10th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal.

Federal judges in Kentucky, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah all have rejected bans or parts of bans on gay marriage within the past few months, and last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional the portions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that denied benefits to married same-sex couples.

Sedler, a Southfield resident, was consulted in the Michigan case because of his world-wide reputation and because of a 2004 essay (50 Wayne Law Review 835) he wrote, "The Constitution Should Protect the Right to Same-Sex Marriage."

In Michigan, voters in 2004 approved a same-sex marriage ban, which now is challenged by DeBoer and Rowse, a lesbian couple seeking to legally wed so they can have joint custody of their three adopted children.

Reporters can contact Robert Sedler at (313) 577-3968 or through Wayne Law's Marketing and Communications office at (313) 577-4629.