Opinion ID: 839711
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: only agreement

Text: The next question concerns whether public employers are recognizing an agreement when they provide health-insurance benefits to domestic partners. An agreement is the act of agreeing or of coming to a mutual arrangement. Id. The city of Kalamazoo's, the University of Michigan's, and Michigan State University's policies require putative partners to sign a domestic-partnership agreement. The OSE's policy requires partners to agree that they are jointly responsible for basic living expenses. . . . Obviously, if two people have decided to sign a domestic-partnership agreement or have agreed to be jointly responsible for basic living expenses, they have come to a mutual arrangement. [17] Therefore, public employers recognize an agreement when they provide health-insurance benefits to domestic partners on the basis of a domestic partnership. However, the marriage amendment specifically states that the only agreement that can be recognized as a marriage or similar union is the union of one man and one woman. Only means the single one . . . of the kind; lone; sole[.] Random House Webster's College Dictionary (1991). Therefore, a single agreement can be recognized within the state of Michigan as a marriage or similar union, and that single agreement is the union of one man and one woman. A domestic partnership does not constitute such a recognizable agreement.