LANSING, Mich.—The 1945 Emergency Powers Act that gave Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sweeping executive authority to lock down the state at the height of the CCP virus pandemic is on its way to being repealed. The State Board of Canvassers certified on Tuesday that the citizens’ group Unlock Michigan had gathered enough signatures to bring the law before the Republican-controlled state legislature, where it is all but certain to be repealed by legislative action, possibly before the end of the month, according to a GOP state senate spokesperson.
By law, the legislature has 40 days to act. This special legislative action is not subject to a governor’s veto. If the legislature fails to repeal the law, the Michigan Constitution mandates the measure comes before the voters at the next general election.
Though the 1945 law was found unconstitutional (as an undue ceding of legislative authority to the executive) by the Michigan Supreme Court in October of 2020, Whitmer quickly invoked the emergency powers of the Michigan Dept. of Public Health in order to keep the lockdown in place. That gave rise to the launching of another citizens’ initiative to curtail the emergency powers of the Michigan state health department.
On Wednesday, Unlock Michigan spokesperson Fred Wzolek confirmed to The Epoch Times that the board of canvassers has also approved the format for the group’s newest petition.
Wzolek described the latest petition as “another step to keep Whitmer from ruling by decree on her own. This latest initiative proposes to amend the public health code. We need 340,000 valid signatures. We expect to start gathering them in the next couple weeks. We will get it done.”
The group has 180 days to collect the required number of valid signatures.
Wzolek explained that the initiative would limit emergency health department orders to a duration of 28 days, and that it would require the approval of the legislature to extend that time period.
Opposing the pair of petitions is an organization called Keep Michigan Safe. Though no spokesperson could be reached for comment, the group’s website describes the committee as “a coalition to protect the executive power of Michigan’s governor during a public health crisis.”
The group’s address is listed as a Lansing post office box.
Keep Michigan Safe declares the Unlock Michigan petitions “will undermine the ability of our elected leaders and medical experts to keep Michigan families safe.”
The site repeatedly urges its readers to “Report an Unlock Michigan Circulator” by informing the group of when and where the petition circulators are operating and what they said.
