Updates About Lower Court Rulings

Recently, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the nine remaining bills from the 2023-2024 legislature must be sent to Governor Whitmer for a signing decision. The court upheld that the state Constitution requires presentation of the bills and ordered the House to abide by the ruling. The court ruled that while the Michigan Constitution does not set a strict schedule for the House to present a bill, the Constitution does state that once passed the mandatory next step for a bill passed by both chambers is to be presented in front of the governor.

House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) had refused to present the bills, arguing that the current House was unable to do so because they were passed under a former Legislature. One of the nine bills now set for presentment is one that would require governments to pay more of their employees’ health insurance premiums.

In response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announcing that SNAP benefits would not be distributed for the month of November, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined a lawsuit with 24 other states arguing the USDA unlawfully suspended the funds. Recently, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must provide partial benefits to SNAP recipients while the federal government shutdown continues. Judge Indira Talwani from the U.S District Court for Massachusetts ruled that the USDA is required to use the appropriated contingency funds for the program.

The Trump administration has insisted that the use of contingency funds is not legally permitted to cover benefits. However, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins argued that because SNAP is not currently funded, the emergency SNAP benefits cannot be distributed. In 2019, the USDA used contingency funds in response to that year’s government shutdown. The pausing of the benefits was set to affect over 42 million Americans nationwide, including 1.4 million Michigan residents.

Following Judge Talwani’s ruling, President Trump instructed his lawyers to ask for clarification from the court on how they can legally fund SNAP. The USDA reported that its contingency fund could only cover approximately half of November’s benefits, leaving no funds available for future months. The USDA was also instructed by the court to notify them if tariff revenue dollars can be used to support SNAP benefits; USDA officials and U.S. Department of Justice lawyers declined the request.

The USDA notified the Michigan Department of Health and Humans Services that the partial SNAP benefits will begin to be distributed on Saturday, November 8th.

Lansing District Judge Kristen Simmons rejected all criminal charges against a group of 15 Republican electors who forged a counterfeit public document containing their own signatures claiming that then-presidential candidate Donald Trump had won Michigan in the 2020 election.

Simmons ruled that the defendants were not culpable of any criminal activity because they were acting under the direction of Trump attorney Shawn Flynn, and the Michigan Attorney General’s office had failed to establish probable cause. Therefore, the electors believed they were exercising their constitutional right to raise concerns about election fraud to the U.S. Senate.