MICHIGAN GOVERNOR VETOES A MARRIAGE PACKAGE: From the Detroit Free Press

The end of the year always signals a flurry of bill signings by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. But in 2004, the bills she signed were overshadowed by the legislation she vetoed.

With the stroke of her pen Thursday, she angered a range of politicians -- from conservative Republicans to Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

She vetoed a package of bills that would encourage premarital counseling for couples and require counseling for married couples with children who are about to divorce. She said the bills were too intrusive on private decisions.

"Let me be clear: Marriage preservation is a very important issue," she wrote in her veto letter. "But the decisions men and women make about marriage are private decisions. State government should not expand its role into such private matters."

She said there were bills in the package that she would have approved, such as allowing retired clergy to perform marriage counseling, but the bills were connected and a veto of one bill meant a veto of the whole package. ...

The bill that caused the most consternation for Granholm was one that would require couples to wait three days for a marriage license if they didn't go through premarital counseling.

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