St. Clair Today

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is striking out in the Michigan Supreme Court by trying to impose one-person rule during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

The report, written by Tom Gantert, said Whitmer’s one-person rule using executive orders and emergency declarations, especially in dealing with the pandemic, is finding little favor in the state's highest court.

The most recent on Oct. 12, in a 4-3 ruling, said that a law enacted in 1945 Whitmer used to support an executive order was unconstitutional because the law had no time limit -- no determination on how long the emergency powers would be in place.

In a second case, the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation defended three health care centers and a patient who they claimed were harmed because of a pandemic executive order by Whitmer restricting treatments. That Supreme Court vote, taken on Oct. 3, decided 7-0 that Whitmer’s citing of a 1976 emergency management law based on executive authority was still subject to consent by the Legislature, which had expired on April 30.

The court ruled that after April 30, Whitmer did not have the authority to issue any further executive orders relating to the pandemic.      

The governor's first loss of the three in the Supreme Court came in June when a barber in Owosso named Karl Manke protested the shuttering of his barber shop by Whitmer under an executive order. The High Court ruled 7-0 against the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, deciding that an appeals court had not properly followed the law in attempting to close the barber shop under Whitmer’s orders.