Editorial: The Detroit News
Michigan is now operating under emergency orders that
have an extremely shaky legal foundation. The crisis powers granted to Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak expired at midnight
Thursday, and when she failed to reach a deal with lawmakers to extend
them, she set aside the legislative branch and unilaterally imposed the
extension.
That’s a stunning power grab. Whitmer is declaring she
can run the state as she pleases, for as long as she pleases, with no oversight
or checks on her power.
This affront to democracy must be undone by the courts.
Michigan’s emergency powers act of 1976 allows a governor
to declare a state of emergency and assume extraordinary powers over the
citizens of the state for 28 days in the face of natural or man-made
disasters.
At the end of 28 days, the law specifically allows for an
extension of those powers, but only with the approval of both chambers of
the Legislature. Lawmakers previously granted a 23-day extension.
The language of the bill is clear. But Whitmer
executed a series of questionable maneuvers late Thursday to justify her bypass
of the Legislature, relying heavily on a convenient reading of the original
emergency powers act adopted in 1945.
Nothing she did changes the fact that in 1976
lawmakers added a new bill to complement the 1945 act with the expressed intent
of giving the Legislature oversight authority when an emergency is declared.
No reasonable person would assume the Legislature would
willingly forfeit its Constitutional authority and vest absolute power in the
executive branch. The language of the 1945 law is largely focused on
short-term episodes of civil unrest.
It does not mention contagious diseases. But the 1976
law specifically cites pandemics as a justification for operating under
emergency powers. That, then, should be the law that is followed.
Whitmer is attempting to assign a noble purpose for
her unilateral power grab, saying she needed to continue her emergency powers
to protect health care workers from being sued by COVID-19 patients.
But the Legislature Thursday approved a bill that
would enshrine that immunity in law, proving lawmakers are capable of working
with the governor to protect Michigan.
They had offered to grant her another short-term
extension of her powers, with oversight. But she refused to accept any
conditions that forced her to collaborate with lawmakers.
The Republican-controlled Legislature Thursday also
passed resolutions authorizing the speaker of the House and the Senate majority
leader to sue the governor.
That lawsuit should be filed ASAP.
From the beginning of her tenure, Whitmer has
show disdain for both the law and regular-order governing, looking for every
loophole to avoid dealing with the Legislature.
This time, she’s taken the state to a very dangerous
place.
There's no reasonable defense, in a representative
democracy, for a governor to strip the legislative branch of its
constitutional authority and assume dictatorial powers in perpetuity.
