Attorneys are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case challenging Michigan’s emergency manager law, contending Flint’s water crisis now stands as evidence for “what happens when the government is allowed to run our communities based only on the ‘bottom line.’ “In filing a petition for a Writ of Certiorari Friday, March 31, Ann Arbor attorney and professor Samuel R. Bagenstos claims the emergency manager law is racially discriminatory and deprives citizens of their rights under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The request to the Supreme Court comes six months after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a challenge to the law — Public Act 436, saying Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan for managing distressed communities didn’t violate residents’ constitutional rights.
In announcing the filing Friday, members of the coalition of groups making the Supreme Court request said Flint’s water crisis and the role emergency managers played in it are reminders of the problems inherent in the current law.
Full Article: Supreme Court could decide if Michigan EM law violates Voting Rights Act | MLive.com.