FAT LADY YET TO SING

If you thought the legal skirmishes over Michigan’s term limits had ended with the dismissal this past January by U.S. District Judge Janet Neff of Grand Rapids of a lawsuit challenging the 1992 voter-approved amendment to the state Constitution (Proposal B) would be the last word, think again. A bi-partisan group of 10 former state legislators, including former Oakland County state Senator Mike Kowall (R-White Lake), filed suit in November 2019 challenging term limits, called by many as among the most stringent in the nation. The judge ruled that a 1998 federal court ruling in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals was really “binding precedent” and the plaintiffs are out of luck on the most recent attempt. Although we could not connect with Kowall, we are hearing that work is already underway on an appeal of the January decision. And current state lawmakers are still discussing putting the issue on the 2022 ballot to at least relax some of the current restrictions.