Category: Public Act 4

Take a moment to celebrate and then let’s finish the job once and for all

Take a moment to celebrate and then let’s finish the job once and for all

Last week was an incredible week for all Americans, but most especially for progressives and activists and advocates for equality and equity. We need to take time to celebrate these crucial and impactful Supreme Court decisions, all three of them. King v. Burwell affirmed what most common sense non-elected Republicans have known from the beginning of the Affordable Care Act. […]

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Mich Court of Appeals rules in favor of zombies, allows PA 72 to be resurrected

Mich Court of Appeals rules in favor of zombies, allows PA 72 to be resurrected

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.

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Vote NO on Michigan Prop 1 and rid our state of Public Act 4 and anti-democratic emergency managers

Vote NO on Michigan Prop 1 and rid our state of Public Act 4 and anti-democratic emergency managers

This one is easy

Third in a series on the ballot proposals on Michigan’s November 6, 2012 ballot. Read them all HERE.

Regular readers of this website know very well that I abhor Public Act 4 — Michigan’s so-called Emergency Manager Law. It is the most outrageous government overreach in my lifetime, put in place by hypocritical Republicans who claim that they are for “smaller government”. The fact is, there is no larger government intrusion into the lives of Michiganders than PA 4. Period.
Click through to read why you should VOTE NO ON PROPOSAL 1.

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Michigan Emergency Financial Manager Round-up – Reclaiming our power edition

Michigan Emergency Financial Manager Round-up – Reclaiming our power edition

Taking back control

In the wake of the suspension of Public Act 4, Michigan no longer has “Emergency Managers”. We now have, once again, “Emergency FINANCIAL Managers”, men and women with reduced power and a singular focus on financial matters. Several school districts and municipalities around the state have wasted no time in reasserting their power as elected officials.

Many examples and commentary after the jump.

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Stuff beginning to hit the fan in the fallout of suspending Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law

Stuff beginning to hit the fan in the fallout of suspending Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law

This will NOT be pretty

Now that Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law — is suspended pending the November election, stuff is really beginning to hit the fan around the state.

Follow the drama after the jump.

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What if killing off ALL of Michigan’s ballot initiatives is exactly what those in power want? (UPDATED)

What if killing off ALL of Michigan’s ballot initiatives is exactly what those in power want? (UPDATED)

I didn’t see that one coming at all

This wrote about Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s brief to the Michigan Supreme Court in which she says that if the petitions to repeal Public Act 4 are insufficient to meet the rules set out in our state constitution, the so are ALL of the other ballot initiative’s petitions. My comment in that post was that “gives me hope” and I suggested that this was an unintended and undesirable side effect of this court challenge.

I’m having second thoughts on that.

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Michigan Sec of State Johnson: If PA 4 repeal petition font is wrong, ALL other ballot initiatives are disqualified, too

Michigan Sec of State Johnson: If PA 4 repeal petition font is wrong, ALL other ballot initiatives are disqualified, too

Didn’t think of THAT didjya?

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson filed a brief (pdf) with the state Supreme Court last week that gives me hope. In the case the Court is hearing in front of a packed courtroom today regarding the font size issue with the Public Act 4 repeal petitions, her office suggested that if the PA 4 repeal petitions are disqualified, the petitions for ALL SIX of the other ballot initiatives would also be disqualified.

Details after the jump.

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TOMORROW! Join the anti-Emergency Manager Law protest at the state Supreme Court

TOMORROW! Join the anti-Emergency Manager Law protest at the state Supreme Court

Public Act 4: Anti-democratic, anti-American

Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 25th, the Michigan state Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding the petitions used to gather signatures to put Public Act 4, Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law. At issue is whether or not a concocted lie about the font size of a single phrase on the petition, “REFERENDUM OF LEGISLATION”, is enough to disenfranchise Michigan voters and throw away the voice of the nearly quarter million people who signed the petitions.

You can join the protest at the Supreme Court tomorrow and free bus rides are available from around the state. Details after the jump.

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Major labor group enters battle to repeal Emergency Manager Law – Michigan AFL-CIO

Major labor group enters battle to repeal Emergency Manager Law – Michigan AFL-CIO

Welcome! We saved you a seat!

After sitting on the sidelines for over a year in the battle to repeal Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law — the Michigan AFL-CIO labor union has now entered the fray. They are participating in a rally at the Michigan Court of Appeals next Wednesday.

Details after the jump.

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INTERVIEW: Rev. Charles Williams II to lead march from Detroit to Lansing to protest voter suppression, Public Act 4 (updated)

INTERVIEW: Rev. Charles Williams II to lead march from Detroit to Lansing to protest voter suppression, Public Act 4 (updated)

March for Democracy and Freedom in Michigan

UPDATE: This march has been cancelled. See my update HERE.

For five days later this month, July 23-27, the Michigan Chapter of the National Action Network will march from Detroit to Lansing along Grand River Avenue, to protest the egregious actions of Republicans in Michigan. From overreaching voter suppression laws to the Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law — activists from around the state are outraged by Republican efforts to disenfranchise Michigan voters.

An organizing meeting will take place this Saturday, July 7, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. at the Historic King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit (6100 14th Street, Detroit.)

I spoke with Rev. Charles Williams II, president of the Michigan Chapter of NAN this afternoon. He told me that this march is modeled after the Selma to Montgomery march led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1965.

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Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility waste tax payer money by taking Emergency Manager font issue to Supreme Court

Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility waste tax payer money by taking Emergency Manager font issue to Supreme Court

“Fiscal Responsibility” – I don’t think that means what you think it means

The absurdly named group Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility is taking their disenfranchising and deceitful case regarding the Public Act 4 repeal petition font size to the state supreme court.

Keep in mind that they already lost at the Court of Appeals level, including a rejection by the entire 28-judge appeals court panel. The Court of Appeals made it very clear the long-established precedent regarding “substantial compliance” of petitions is governs this case. {more…}

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