Court says lawsuit against attorney Mike Morse can go ahead
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) — A woman who claims a high-profile Detroit-area lawyer grabbed her breast can pursue a claim of emotional distress after the Michigan Supreme Court declined to intervene in the case.
The decision means an appeals court ruling will stand in a lawsuit against Mike Morse, who is known for TV ads that feature his mother and tout his success in representing injured people.
A woman alleges that Morse grabbed her left breast in 2017 when they posed for a picture at a restaurant. He denies it.
The appeals court last year said the woman’s claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress can move forward, although the legal threshold is high.
“Plaintiff had just met Morse and they were in a public place with other people nearby. Thus, the conduct, if it occurred, would have been particularly brash and unexpected,” the court said.
The appeals court also had reversed other parts of a decision by an Oakland County judge.
Morse’s attorney, Deb Gordon, has called the lawsuit a “sham” cooked up by his rivals in the legal field.
State board deadlocks 2-2 on measure to repeal emergency law
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s elections board deadlocked Thursday on certifying a veto-proof initiative that would enable the Republican-led Legislature to wipe from the books a law Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used to issue sweeping pandemic orders last year.
The 2-2 vote means proponents of the ballot drive will go to court.
Democrats on the Board of State Canvassers voted not to certify the citizen-initiated measure despite a recommendation by the state elections bureau, which determined Unlock Michigan collected 460,00 valid signatures — more than the roughly 340,000 needed. Democrats called for further investigation and new petition rules a day after Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel said investigators found “unsavory practices and sleazy tactics” but nothing that would stand up in court as crimes.
“I’m concerned about the validity of some of these signatures ... how these signatures were gathered,” Democrat Julie Matuzak said. “We are the gatekeepers of election integrity.”
Republicans supported certification.
“We’re just shutting down, and I don’t think we should shut down,” said chair Norman Shinkle. “They got well more than they need as far as signatures go.”
For months, the Democratic governor used the emergency-powers law to order and keep intact restrictions on the economy to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The Michigan Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional in October, but Unlock Michigan wants to repeal it to prevent a future court from deciding differently.
Since the ruling, Whitmer has turned to the state health department to keep intact a mask requirement and to tighten and ease restrictions through a separate law.
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