Bill would empower Michigan Legislature to issue subpoenas
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Legislature would have subpoena power over local governments under legislation approved by the House.
Bill sponsor Republican Rep. Ed McBroom says the change approved Tuesday is needed to ensure the Legislature can retrieve documents from local governments without having to go through the state's public records process.
Opponents of the change say it would be hypocritical for the Legislature to be able to subpoena information from local governments when the Legislature itself is exempt from the state's Freedom of Information Act.
Another bill from the same sponsor would clarify that either the House or Senate may issue a subpoena without needing approval from the other chamber.
The Republican-led House approved the bills with 69 or more votes each. The bills now go to the GOP-controlled Senate for consideration.
WSU?Law student wins honorable mention in writing competition
Erica Shell, who graduated from Wayne State University Law School on Monday, May 18, has been awarded an honorable mention in a national environmental law writing competition.
Shell’s entry in the Environmental Law Institute’s 2014-15 Beveridge & Diamond Constitutional Environmental Law Writing Competition was “The Final Auer: Constitutional Challenges to a Fundamental Principle of Administrative Law.” Her article, one of the top three in the contest, will be published in an upcoming edition of Environmental Law Reporter News & Analysis.
A Birmingham resident, Shell has been hired to work at Bodman PLC where she worked as a legal clerk and as a summer associate in 2014-15. She also worked as a legal assistant for the River Rouge City Attorney Office.
In law school, she particularly enjoyed working in the Transnational Environmental Law Clinic.
“I had a great opportunity to work closely with Professor (Nick) Schroeck on real legal issues impacting the Detroit community,” she said. “I have also greatly enjoyed the opportunity to work one on one with Professors (Noah) Hall and Schroeck on drafting articles, such as this one.”
Shell was part of the National Environmental Law Moot Court Team that in February took home the Best Brief award in the annual Jeffrey G. Miller Pace National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition, where she was named best oralist twice, once for each time she argued.
Judges remarked that they “wouldn’t want to face her in court” and that she was “unflappable.” She was a member of the Gibbons Criminal Procedure Moot Court Competition team in 2014 and was a regional finalist and oralist with the American Bar Association National Appellate Advocacy Competition Moot Court team this year.
Shell was managing editor of The Journal of Law in Society at Wayne Law and served as an intern for Wayne Law alumna U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds, Eastern District of Michigan, in 2013.
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