I'm reading through the Michigan Supreme Court ruling on Executive Orders and what I find is that for the most part I can agree with its finding. There has been an argument between the GOP and the Governor Whitmers office over executive order approval and how long they stay in effect based on two related laws. One side says the executive orders are necessary to protect life and the other side believes the executive orders are overreach. I'm not here to debate the details or promote one side over another.
I can say that I believe many of the EO have saved lives and in general I like the system that the Governor and the state used. Dial up and dial down seems to be a reasonable approach. There were times I felt that the EO were overreach and there were times when I felt they were not enough or misplaced. Then I realize that this is a novel situation and that it is much easier to judge these things in hindsight than foresight.
The people challenging such EOs are part of a conversation that pushes decisions to adjust and change to meet wider stakeholders.
What I'm pretty sure of is that I support business and I support life. There were some EOs I felt hampered business prospects unnecessarily and that had an impacted tourism. Yet maybe some of those are necessary for a disease that spreads through interaction. Let's be honest. While most might follow the rules and do what is best we do know that there are a lot of people who put the rest of us at risk. There might have been things I might have changed such helping remote work and making certain home office products either temporarily tax deductible or required by employers (not sure yet 😐).
I can agree with the Michigan Supreme Court that there must be a check and balance to power. That doesn't mean I think someone took advantage, or not advantage of the EO, but it does mean that there must be a "hard stop" to ensure legislature is part of the process. They are another representative body of the people and thus must have a say in long term decisions that are not deemed absolutely necessary to overcome immediate danger. They may decide to extend EO power for a certain time frame but that there is a balance by having governor flexibility but power check-ins through renewing emergency powers (at least that is how I see it).
Since the pandemic started I followed the movement of these issues through the court system so I can better understand the legal process. For the most part I can see the necessities of these orders and recognize there is a point where authority should naturally move back toward legislature. When that happens is part of what Republicans and Democrats are debating over. These actions define the issues. We may have to deal with this again in the near future until we have developed the technological and big data capacity to understand human behavior on a species/organism global level.
A few articles I wrote.....
May Copy of Michigan Legislature vs Executive Branch(Governor Whitmer) Complaint
May Michigan Court of Claims Ruling Over Executive Orders and Order Extension
September Who is Going to Win Executive Orders in the Supreme Court of Michigan?-Conflict Leads to Definition
Read for yourself below......
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