Lawsuit claims Michigan's emergency manager law is 'dead'

Sugar Law Center, Center for Constitutional Rights says state has no emergency manager law because Public Act 4 has been suspended

Published On: Sep 27 2012 01:34:59 PM EDT
LANSING, Mich. -

A lawsuit filed against the state by civil rights lawyers claims Michigan's emergency manager law is dead.

The Sugar Law Center and the Center for Constitutional Rights says in a statement Thursday that the state has no emergency manager law because Public Act 4 has been suspended pending a statewide ballot proposal vote Nov. 6.

Attorney General Bill Schuette and Gov. Rick Snyder have said the state has reverted to the old emergency manager law, Public Act 72.

John Philo, legal director of the Sugar Law Center, says "there cannot be emergency managers without the legal framework to support them" and "the old law is dead."

Emergency managers are operating in Benton Harbor, Flint, Pontiac and Ecorse, as well as in school districts in Detroit, Highland Park and Muskegon Heights.

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