Michigan State Supreme Court declines to fast-track GOP-led lawsuit against Whitmer

LANSING - The state high court voted 4-3 to deny lawmakers' request to bypass the Court of Appeals and hear their suit contesting her use of emergency powers during the pandemic. Whitmer, who effectively won the case in the Court of Claims while the GOP took some comfort from one part of the ruling, had also asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

Justice Richard Bernstein noted that Whitmer earlier this week lifted her stay-home order.

"While recognizing that not all restrictions have been lessened (and acknowledging the possibility of future restrictions being reimplemented), I believe the parties and this Court would benefit most from having the vital constitutional issues of this case fully argued in the Court of Appeals before receiving a final determination from our Court," he wrote. Chief Justice Bridget McCormack and Justices Megan Cavanagh and Elizabeth Clement also agreed to wait.

Three justices, Stephen Markman, David Viviano and Brian Zahra, said the appeals court should be skipped.

"By our decision to deny the applications for bypass, we bypass an exercise of authority to decide what is perhaps the most substantial dispute ever presented to this Court, not only diminishing our standing among the judicial institutions of our federal system but diminishing our relevance within the judicial institutions of this state itself," Markman wrote