Public Media from Michigan State University

Justice frustrated over emergency-manager case

By AP

DETROIT –

More than five months after it was asked for a ruling, the Michigan Supreme Court still hasn't decided whether to declare if the state's new emergency-manager law is legal.

At least one justice is growing impatient. Justice Stephen Markman, a Republican, says it's time for the case to be "considered and resolved."

Opponents of the emergency-manager law filed a lawsuit last year to stop it. In August, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder asked the Supreme Court to leapfrog the lower court and quickly settle the matter.

The law gives managers extraordinary power to alter union contracts, sell assets and cut spending in school districts and local governments. Justices Marilyn Kelly and Michael Cavanagh, both Democrats, are opposed to taking the case away from a lower court.

Republicans control the Supreme Court, 4-3.

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