THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Republican/Teabaggers have long been known for their contempt for democracy. When the Republican/Teabaggers took over all three branches of the Michigan government, one of the first things they passed, after tax cuts, was a law overturning democratically elected city and town governments in favor of a Commissar with Plenary powers appointed by the governor. This was only to be done in emergencies, a common ploy of power grabs by tyrants, with the governor determining what is an emergency. Now a group of Michigan citizens have filed a law suit to declare this law unconstitutional and regain their democracy.

The lawsuit, filed in Ingham County Circuit Court, contends that the law approved by Michigan lawmakers this year improperly allows the state to place new costs on municipalities without paying for them and, in essence, bars local residents from picking their own elected representatives.

In March, leaders in Lansing — which has, since last fall’s election, been controlled by Republicans in both chambers of the Legislature and in the governor’s office — approved the measure granting more control to those sent into local governments and school districts by the state to avoid allowing such places to go bankrupt or fail entirely.

Leaders of labor unions, in particular, were outraged by the provision because it allows such state-appointed emergency managers to, in some cases, undo provisions of the contracts that towns and cities had already agreed to. Some appeared for rallies in opposition in Lansing this spring. But others had broader complaints; how, they asked, could a state-assigned official simply step into the role of an elected local leader and do whatever he or she wished?

“What you’re saying is that an emergency manager now controls all, including the right to enact or repeal local ordinances,” said John Philo, the legal director of the Sugar Law Center in Detroit, one of several groups, including the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, that is representing the plaintiffs in the suit. “What you’re saying is that one individual now without any sort of legislative process gets to enact a law.”

We wish them good fortune with their suit and if it fails there remains your 2nd Amendment solution.