---
title: "Michigan Supreme Court hears Calvin bias case arguments"
url: https://www.herelansing.com/2026/10/09/michigan-supreme-court-hears-calvin-discrimination-case/
date: 2026-10-09T06:35:30-04:00
modified: 2026-10-09T06:35:30-04:00
author: "HERE City State Desk"
categories: ["News"]
site: "HERE Lansing"
attribution: "HERE Lansing"
---

# Michigan Supreme Court hears Calvin bias case arguments

> LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday in a case testing whether a former Calvin University professor can pursue an associational discrimination claim after he was fired for officiating a same-sex wedding. Joseph Kuilema alleges he was terminated in 2022 because of his association with LGBTQ individuals, and he asked the

*Source: [HERE Lansing](https://www.herelansing.com/2026/10/09/michigan-supreme-court-hears-calvin-discrimination-case/) — October 9, 2026 by HERE City State Desk*

*From the HERE City State Desk*

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday in a case testing whether a former Calvin University professor can pursue an associational discrimination claim after he was fired for officiating a same-sex wedding.

Joseph Kuilema alleges he was terminated in 2022 because of his association with LGBTQ individuals, and he asked the high court to let that claim proceed under the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. His lawyer, Charissa Huang, told justices the Court of Appeals wrongly required proof that the firing turned on Kuilema own sex rather than the sexes of the couple whose wedding he officiated.

The Court of Appeals had held that Kuilema sex was irrelevant to Calvin decision and that the university acted because he officiated a same-sex wedding. Huang argued that reading would chill people who associate across race, culture, and sexual orientation and would write a limit into Elliott-Larsen that the Legislature never enacted.

Calvin attorney Stephen J. Vanstempvoort said the statute protects the individual experiencing discrimination based on that person own protected characteristic. He also argued that race-based associational precedents such as Miller v. Michigan Department of Corrections should not apply because the wedding couple were not directly harmed by the firing.

Chief Justice Megan Cavanagh pressed both sides on how far associational protection should reach. Kuilema, now a professor at Grand Valley State University, said afterward that he was encouraged by the justices questions. Background filings show Calvin denied him reappointment in April 2022 after 14 years on the faculty, following an October 2021 same-sex marriage ceremony he officiated, and that a 2-1 Court of Appeals panel earlier split his retaliation and associational claims.