The Michigan Supreme Court put a halt Tuesday on a recent Wayne County court order that took proposed revisions to Detroit's charter off the Aug. 3 ballot.
So what happens now? Charter revisions are back on the ballot, according to the city. But that could change depending how the Court of Appeals rules. The Supreme Court, ultimately, has put the decision in the appellate court's hands.
It's the latest development in a debate over the merit and legality of sweeping changes to Detroit's governing document after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declined to approve them in late April.
The state's high court gave its nod to the Detroit Charter Revision Commission's Thursday emergency plea for an expedited appeal. The body elected to amend the charter sought to get its approval for the ballot reinstated.
The Court of Appeals needs to "expedite consideration" of the revision commission's request, the Supreme Court wrote.
A decision is expected Thursday, per Mark Burton, co-leader of Detroit-based Honigman LLP's economic development incentives group and attorney for plaintiffs in the original lawsuit seeking to take the revisions off the ballot.
Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny had ruled Wednesday in favor of the plaintiffs, which include activist Rev. Horace Sheffield III, declaring the charter revisions had been improperly certified to go on the ballot and must be removed.
The revision commission, in reacting to Kenny's decision, had also asked to bypass the Court of Appeals and go straight the state's high court. While the Supreme Court did agree to stay the lower court's order and is making the Court of Appeals hurry up the process, it did not grant the commission's request to skip straight to the top.
Time is vital in the case because the upcoming election's ballots need to go to the printer this week and be available by June 19 for absentee voters. If the changes to what is essentially Detroit's constitution don't go to voters Aug. 3, they're done for — the elected revision commission dissolves Aug. 6 and won't get another chance.
"The Detroit City Clerk received today's Michigan Supreme Court order in time to adjust the ballot as directed by the court," Detroit Corporation Counsel Lawrence Garcia said in a statement. "The clerk was using today, June 1, as the deadline for preparing Detroit's ballot. Detroit's ballot will become a part of a larger order submitted to the printer by the County of Wayne, and it is our understanding that the County will not submit the larger order until June 4 (Friday)."
If the Court of Appeals decides before Friday the revisions shouldn't go before voters, then they likely won't.
The Wayne County judge had argued the revisions weren't fit for the ballot because they needed Whitmer's approval first. She has declined to approve them, citing legal "deficiencies." The question of whether they need the governor's green light or not comes down to a disagreement over language in a state statute.
The commission has also been at odds with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's administration over how much the changes to the charter could cost. Crain's published an in-depth report on some of the proposal's tenets last month.
Michigan Supreme Court puts Detroit charter revisions back on ballot, pending appeals court decision - Crain's Detroit Business
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