A Republican on the Michigan Supreme Court says a legal challenge to the state’s emergency manager law is dragging on too long.
Justice Steven Markman is part of a four-judge Republican majority on the court. Markman says the state’s highest court should take over the case and make a decision.
The Michigan Supreme Court has yet to rule on Governor Rick Snyder’s request to bypass lower courts and make a decision on whether the emergency manager law violates the state constitution. That request was made last summer.
Opponents of the law say it robs local voters of the right to choose their leaders and violates nine clauses of the Michigan Constitution.
If that’s true -- says Justice Markman in a sharply worded dissent to a procedural order -- the law needs to be struck down, and quickly. But, he says if the law is constitutional and necessary to ensure local governments remain solvent, that authority needs to be affirmed.
There are two school districts and four cities in Michigan being run by emergency managers with sweeping authority under the year-old law.
To read Markman's dissent:
http://coa.courts.mi.gov/documents/SCT/PUBLIC/ORDERS/20120127_S143563_14_143563_2012-01-27_or.pdg
