Whitmer rails against Michigan Supreme Court striking down 2 coronavirus emergency acts

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer railed against the state Supreme Court’s decision to strike down her orders to extend a coronavirus-related state of emergency past April 30 without legislative approval.

“This threat is still very real and the sad irony is on the day that the president was admitted to the hospital with the very virus he called a hoax, the Supreme Court in Michigan undermined my emergency rule, my emergency orders that I’ve had to enact that puts us in the same state as all other states in this nation, to save lives,” Whitmer said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

“We’ve saved thousands of lives and the Supreme Court, on a slim majority Republican vote, undermined that effort,” Whitmer continued, adding that two Michigan Supreme Court justice seats are up for election.

“Michiganders have an opportunity to weigh in on our Supreme Court,” she said. “We’ve got to have justices who do the right thing.”

The court ruled 4-3 that Whitmer’s decision to declare a state of emergency without approval from state legislators was unconstitutional, citing the 1976 Emergency Management Act, which states that “after 28 days, the governor shall issue an executive order … declaring the state of disaster terminated” or request an extension.

The plaintiffs in the case were health care providers who could not perform nonessential medical procedures due to the extension, according to the majority opinion.

“The court has restored the voices of 10 million Michiganders by reaffirming the constitutional protections of checks and balances afforded through the separation of powers,” Patrick Wright, vice president for legal affairs at the Mackinac Center, which brought the lawsuit against Whitmer that led to the decision, said in a statement.

The Mackinac Center expects an “almost certain rehearing request from the governor and other state officials,” according to a press release.