Republicans leaders in the Legislature today asked the Michigan Supreme Court to rule that Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s has abused her emergency powers to address COVID-19. Their challenge claims Whitmer has continued to issue emergency executive orders even though he legal authority to do so has expired. Assistant Attorney General Michael Williams is representing the GOP leaders. He says the governor has cut the Legislature out of the process.
“The governor would have a very strong statutory basis to do whatever she wished to do. Her view would empower her to do whatever she’d like throughout the state of Michigan, and those carefully calibrated levers of government would instead be ignored.”
Whitmer says she can continue to issue emergency orders for as long as the COVID-19 crisis exists or until courts rule otherwise. This case is a response to a request from a federal court for an advisory opinion.
