(The Center Square) – Michigan’s Democrat-controlled Senate has requested a judge enforce her ruling against the House after it ignored a deadline to present nine bills that were passed in 2024 to the governor for signature.
This is just the latest in a months-long legal battle between the Senate and Republican-controlled House, after Democrats failed to send the bills to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at the end of the 2024 legislative session.
Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, and the Senate filed a motion requesting that Court of Appeals Judge Sima Patel take additional legal action against the House for continuing to refuse to send the bills to Whitmer.
“Enough is enough. How much longer are we going to pretend that it’s normal or okay for a speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives to ignore the constitution,” Brinks said in a statement. “I’ve said it before and will repeat myself: the constitution is worth standing up for, and we will take this fight to the end.”
Republicans argue that it was the fault of the Democrats for not presenting the bills to the governor for her signature prior to the end of 2024.
“Democrats ended 2024 in chaos,” stated Speaker of the House Matt Hall, who has taken the lead for the Republicans.
The motion from the Senate is just the latest action it has taken on the issue, which Democrats have labeled the “Hall Holdup.”
On Feb. 27, Patel ruled in favor of Brinks and the Senate in “Michigan Senate v. Michigan House of Representatives.”
While ruling that Hall should have presented the bills, at that time Patel did not issue an injunction or writ of mandamus forcing the House to present the bills, instead saying the court would not intervene in “legislative functions.”
Following that ruling, Republicans in the House doubled down, passing a resolution on March 12 declaring that the House Clerk only present bills to Whitmer that pass both chambers of the state legislature from the current 2025 session.
The resolution cited the Michigan Constitution, which states that only legislative business, bills, and resolutions “pending at the final adjournment” in an “odd numbered year” carries over to the next session. Republicans argue that this wording implies that bills pending in an even-numbered year do not carry over to the next legislative session, which would apply to the nine 2024 bills in question.
The bills in limbo deal with everything from funding for museums to an expansion of the Michigan State Police retirement plan.
The Michigan Education Association has also come out in support of Senate Democrats pushing to get the bills passed, in hopes the governor will have the opportunity to sign House Bill 6058, which it argues will “reduce skyrocketing health care costs for educators and other public employees.”
“We applaud Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks and her Senate colleagues for working tirelessly on behalf of teachers, school support staff, higher education employees and the students we serve,” said Chandra Madafferi, the association’s president and CEO.
Appeals from both the state Senate and House are currently awaiting rulings from the court of appeals.
