The Michigan Court of Appeals has allowed the process of recalling Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist for abusing their powers and mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic to move ahead.
The effort to recall them is based on the argument they violated the Michigan Constitution’s separation of powers clause by continuing to issue virus-related orders through the state health department even after the Michigan Supreme Court found last October that Whitmer had abused her emergency powers, the website JustTheNews.com reported Wednesday.
The recall petitions, which Michigan’s Board of State Canvasser have already approved charge Whitmer with having exceeded her authority in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic, including an extension of a promised “15-day pause” of indoor dining out over an additional two months.
“Whitmer’s continued actions which show an ‘It’s OK for me but not for thee’ mentality is not the mentality of an effective leader to bring Success and Growth to Michigan,” recall petitioner Chad Baase said.
The two Democrats have attempted to keep the recall process from moving forward by arguing in court the petitions fail to “adequately describe the authorities cited as reasons for the recall” and because the language used in them is unclear, citing as an example the use of the term “bars” to mean a public space.
The appeals court rejected that argument, “Any person invited to sign the petition would very likely envision a reference to a conventional tavern, where people can purchase and consume alcoholic beverages” while slapping Whitmer down further in the totality of its decision.
“We conclude that although the governor relied on the appearance of a string of nonsensical characters to support her challenge to the clarity of the petition language, the governor’s hasty conclusion about a word-processing irregularity does not arise often enough to compel reading the petition as featuring some gibberish in place of several normal characters that appear the rest of the time,” the court wrote.
The governor, speaking through a spokesman for her 2022 re-election campaign, said Whitmer intended to appeal the ruling in a further effort to block the attempt to recall her as she prepares to mount a bid for a second term.