Drunk. With. Power. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation today that is one of the final steps in consolidating Republican power in Michigan. The new law moves the Court of Claims — the court where suits against the state government are heard — from the Ingham County Circuit Court where it’s been for decades to Michigan Court of Appeals. Governor […]

They know what democracy looks like. If Gov. Snyder signs this bill into law, it will prove once again that he doesn’t. [Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog] The speed at which Republicans rammed through Senate Bill 652 is enough to give anyone legislative whiplash. And when bills are rushed through that quickly for no […]

This is why we need to be thinking about the 2014 midterm election

Back in August, I wrote about how the repeal of Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law — would, by law, leave Michigan without any law creating Emergency Managers or Emergency Financial Managers. I showed pretty clearly how the law prevents PA 72, the predecessor to PA 4, from coming back.

This week, the Michigan Court of Appeals chose to completely disregard the Michigan constitution and, in essence, allow the resurrection of Zombie Law PA 72 anyway.

When you’ve lost the conservative press, you’ve lost

The Livingston County Press & Argus editorial page is not known for being part of the so-called “Liberal Media”. Quite the opposite, in fact. So, their recent Op-Ed “Politics trumps law for GOP judges” is significant.

Very significant.

How long are we going to put up with this?

Yesterday in Detroit, the three Republican judges on the Michigan Court of Appeals heard testimony regarding the font-size challenge to the petitions gathered to put the repeal of Public Act 4 — the Emergency Manager Law — on the November ballot. As I wrote about the other day, they did so without complete information because expert analysis of the font used on the petitions — analysis requested by the Michigan Director of State Elections — was not included in the overview given to the Board of State Canvassers before they made their decision on April 26.

Laura Conaway at The Maddow Blog spoke with the expert, Assistant Professor Chris Corneal of the Graphic Design in the Department of Art, Art History and Design at Michigan State University. Here’s what he had to say:

The Michigan Republican House caucus won a round in court yesterday. The court allowed three bills passed in an illegal and unconstitutional use of “immediate effect” to remain on the books. The Court of Appeals has halted a lower court’s injunction ordering House Republicans to grant requests from Democrats to hold recorded roll call votes on whether to put new […]