Tag: Repeal PA4

UPDATED: Allen Park, Michigan: The first majority white community to get an Emergency Financial Manager under Rick Snyder

UPDATED: Allen Park, Michigan: The first majority white community to get an Emergency Financial Manager under Rick Snyder

Emergency Managers: they’re not just for black folks anymore

Since it became clear that Michigan’s Emergency Manager law — Public Act 4 — was disproportionately impacting majority African American communities, I have been warning that this was something that wasn’t likely to stay confined to those towns. In fact, I have written, it was likely going to take a majority white city staring down the barrel of state-appointed dictator — a viceroy, if you will — before non-African American Michiganders would start to take notice.

Attention, white Michiganders: it’s time to take notice.

Details after the jump.

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Civil rights law groups file suit against Snyder administration to halt use of Emergency Financial Managers

Civil rights law groups file suit against Snyder administration to halt use of Emergency Financial Managers

Zombie fighters are on the case

In early August, after an intentionally absurd legal battle, Public Act 4 — Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager law — was repealed. Attorney General Bill Schuette immediately declared that the former version of the law, Public Act 72 — the Emergency FINANCIAL Manager law — was back in force. The lengths to which Schuette went to justify this decision were nothing short of epic.

Now a group of civil rights attorneys has stepped up to slay the zombie beast. Click through for details.

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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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UPDATED: Michigan Board of State Canvassers puts Emergency Manager Law repeal on November ballot

UPDATED: Michigan Board of State Canvassers puts Emergency Manager Law repeal on November ballot

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.

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Michigan GOP AG Schuette resurrects Zombie Emergency Manager Law PA 72 using circuitous logic

Michigan GOP AG Schuette resurrects Zombie Emergency Manager Law PA 72 using circuitous logic

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.

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BREAKING: Supreme Court orders elections board to certify Emergency Mgr law repeal petitions (Updated)

BREAKING: Supreme Court orders elections board to certify Emergency Mgr law repeal petitions (Updated)

NOW we’re getting somewhere

This morning the Michigan Supreme Court issued an order directing the Board of State Canvassers to certify the nearly quarter million petition signatures to put repeal of the anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law on the November ballot.

More after the jump.

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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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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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Detroit to Lansing March for Democracy and Freedom has been postponed

Detroit to Lansing March for Democracy and Freedom has been postponed

Mission Partially Accomplished

Yesterday, I wrote about the March for Democracy and Freedom being organized by Rev. Charles Williams II and his group, National Action Network – Michigan Chapter. The march was modeled on the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches of the mid-60s and was in protest of voter suppression legislation passed by Michigan Republicans as well as the anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law, Public Act 4.

Yesterday, Governor Snyder stunned the state by vetoing the three most egregious bills in the election reform package sent to him by the Republican legislators. Based on this, the march has been postponed.

Rev. Williams’ statement 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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