Michigan high court again rules in favor of emergency law critics
LANSING (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court last Friday reaffirmed an earlier decision that could lead to the repeal of a law that was used by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to order restrictions last year related to the coronavirus.
The court directed the Board of State Canvassers to certify a ballot question that will likely kill the 1945 emergency powers law, which has already been declared unconstitutional.
A group called Unlock Michigan met the 340,000-signature threshold, officials said, but the board deadlocked along partisan lines and refused to certify the issue in April.
“The board has a clear legal duty to certify the petition,” the Supreme Court said.
When the petition is certified, the Republican-controlled Legislature will likely enact the measure and end the law rather than let it go to a public vote in 2022. Whitmer, a Democrat, is powerless to stop lawmakers if they take that step.
After the Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional in October, Whitmer used a public health law to carry out many of the same policies to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Justices won’t extend Michigan voting redistricting deadline
By Anna Liz Nichols
Associated Press/Report for America
LANSING (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court last Friday denied a request to extend the deadline for drawing new legislative and congressional maps despite a delay in census redistricting data.
The Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, whose members have been meeting since September 2020, asked the court in April to allow for more time to draw the maps.
The current deadline for an initial proposal is Sept. 17, but the U.S. Census Bureau does not expect to have tabulated data ready for the public until Sept. 30. The commission asserts that the census data is necessary to draw fair and lawful maps.
With its decision, the Supreme Court declined to protect the commission from lawsuits due to any delays. In a statement, justices acknowledged that the commission’s lawyers have already said the commission will operate on a delayed schedule, with or without permission.
The commission was established by voters in 2018 to limit gerrymandering by having randomly selected Michigan residents, representing balanced political alignments, draw voting district boundaries every 10 years instead of the Legislature. The release of census data was delayed from a March 31 deadline because of the pandemic.
The court acknowledged that it believes the commission has been working diligently and through no fault of its own has been put in a difficult position to present fair voting maps, but said there isn’t a sufficient legal reason to preemptively extend the deadline.
Lawyers for the commission and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson have said they will try to propose new maps by Dec. 11 and have them finalized by Jan. 25.
The commission intended on providing a 45-day public comment period between releasing an initial proposal and finalizing the maps, but without the deadline extension the League of Women Voters of Michigan said in a media release last Friday that it doubts that will happen.
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Anna Liz Nichols is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.
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