If it’s a union-negotiated contract, it’s GOT to go

The Michigan Court of Appeals smacked down a lawsuit by Michigan Tea Party Attorney General Bill Schuette that attacked a union-negotiated contract that allowed for healthcare benefits for the domestic partners unionized state employees.

The contract does not specifically reference same-sex couples but they ARE covered by it so, of course, our AG felt the need to attack it. After all, anything that benefits both teh gayz and union members is not to be tolerated.

More after the jump.

May justice be served

The Ingham County Circuit Court has chosen to convene a one-person grand jury to investigate the election fraud misdeeds of Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger and newly-minted Republican House caucus member Roy Schmidt. This same type of arrangement was used recently to investigate fraudulent behavior by Democrats to run fake tea party candidates and resulted in convictions. The justice that will investigate is Ingham County Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina who was chosen by random draw.

More after the jump.

Score one for the good guys

The Michigan Court of Appeals has once again ordered the Republicans on the Board of State Canvassers to halt their efforts to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Michigan voters and directed them to place the Protect Working Families, formerly Protect Our Jobs, ballot initiative on the November ballot.

This marks the second time the Court of Appeals has done this after ordering the elections board to put the repeal of Public Act 4, the Emergency Manager Law, on the ballot as well. Opponents of that took their fight to the Supreme Court where they ultimately lost.

More after the jump.

When you’re in the news this much, something is wrong

It’s not unusual for a state Attorney General to be in the news from time to time. If they are doing their job, that’s part of the job description. But Michigan AG Bill Schuette finds himself at the center of not one, but TWO big news stories. What his involvement in these two stories shows is that Bill Schuette is using his position as the Attorney General of Michigan to pursue a hardcore right wing, anti-labor agenda that benefits his political allies and harms his political foes.

Details after the jump.

Fer cryin’ out loud, was THAT so hard???

The Michigan Board of State Canvassers met today in Lansing and followed the order given to them by the state Supreme Court to put the repeal of Public Act 4 – our state’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law – on the November ballot.

While you would think that this is the final piece in the Republican Stall Machine, it’s not. Although PA 4 is now officially suspended until the election to determine if it’s repealed or upheld, there is now certain to be a court battle over what happens in the interim.

More after the jump.

BRAAA-AAAINS!!!

With the approval of the PA 4 repeal ballot initiative imminent, the predictable (and predicted) fight over what happens next is fully underway.

Using a truly astonishing act of mental gymnastics and pretzel logic, Republicans, aided and abetted by Attorney General Bill Schuette, are convinced that we will simply revert to the original statute, Public Act 72. Though this law gave Emergency Financial Managers much less abusive authority than the Emergency Managers under Public Act 4, those municipalities and school districts currently under the thumb of a local dictator beg to differ with this view of things.

Join me on the Zombie Law Roller Coaster after the jump.

Drinking the “tea” in Michigan

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has an op-ed in today’s Detroit News regarding the Supreme Court case involving the Affordable Care Act that reads like a tea party manifesto. He appears to representing the small number of Michiganders that call themselves tea partiers while the rest of us have our views disregarded.

He describes it as “an unprecedented power grab” and says it “ends limitations on federal powers”. Neither of these things are true and, as LOLGOP said earlier today, the vast majority of SCOTUS watchers believe they will uphold the ACA as constitutional.

In October, 37 attorneys general from across the country sent a letter to Congress (pdf) urging them to support the nomination of Richard Cordray to head up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This included ten Republican AGs. Not among them: Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. The letter gives Cordray and the fledgling bureau itself glowing reviews. The undersigned state […]

As if it weren’t a big enough travesty that Rep. Paul Scott is asking the state Supreme Court to reconsider their ruling that his recall go on. Now Governor Rick Snyder & Attorney General Bill Schuette are sticking their noses into the matter. Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette filed requests with the Michigan Supreme Court today, asking […]

As I wrote about in my piece for A2Politico this week, the organizers of the recall effort against Republican state Representative Paul Scott was dealt a devastating blow last week when Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Clinton Canady granted an injunction barring the use of petition signatures that have been gathered. This was the only recall effort in Michigan to […]

Last week, I wrote about the connection between Congressman Fred Upton, the Emergency Financial Manager takeover of Benton Harbor and Aubrey McClendon, a millionaire developer and owner of the Chesapeake Oil natural gas company. In the piece, I talked a bit about McClendon’s lawsuits against Saugatuck Township in their efforts to prevent McClendon from developing a piece of duneland at […]