Dr. Alan Reifman's Family Policy Course

Monday, we will first have our quiz. We will then take a few minutes to discuss what's expected in the second part of your legislative proposal papers.

Our substantive topic for Monday (and perhaps Tuesday, depending on our progress) will be the laws of marriage. We will also consider alternative relationships such as common law marriage and civil unions/domestic partnerships.

To bring local relevance to this topic, we'll discuss the state of Wisconsin's ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions (by ballot proposition in 2006), and the questions it raises about partner benefits for UW-Madison employees.

The University of Michigan has been going through a similar situation, due to the state of Michigan's same-sex marriage ban. A ruling from a state court in Michigan, of course, has no legal bearing on Wisconsin. Still, some legal observers seem to want to speculate about whether there are any possible implications of the UM case for UW.