October 26th, 20240With the early in-person voting beginning across the state, the countdown to the November 5 elections has started, where millions of voters will head to the polls to cast their votes in dozens of local and national races, including the congressional and presidential ones.
In this report, we review the statewide races in Michigan in...
November 23rd, 20220Kyra Harris Bolden will be appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court beginning next year. She will be the first Black woman to serve on the high court and will succeed retiring Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack.
Bolden is also Governor Whitmer’s first appointment to the Supreme Court.
She currently represents Southfield and...
October 21st, 20220LANSING — State lawmakers have agreed to set aside $20 million to settle a lawsuit by thousands of people who were wrongly accused of fraud when seeking unemployment benefits.
The money was included in a larger bill recently signed into law by Democratic Governor Whitmer. It followed an agreement reached by the Attorney General’s...
September 9th, 20220Republicans lost an effort to stop a popular ballot measure over abortions from making it to voting booths in November.
Thanks to a Thursday decision by Michigan’s Supreme Court, voters will get to decide whether abortion rights should be put into the Michigan Constitution, after the U.S. Supreme Court famously overturned Roe V....
September 1st, 20220LANSING — A Michigan elections board rejected an abortion rights initiative on Wednesday after its two Republican board members voted against putting the proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot.
The two Democrats on the Board of State Canvassers voted in favor, but getting the measure on the ballot required at...
July 14th, 20220LANSING — The fight to maintain abortion rights intact in the state continues, with new actions from Governor Whitmer as well as voters.
This week, Whitmer signed an executive order refusing to extradite people who come to Michigan seeking reproductive health care. It also protects providers of legal abortion in Michigan, who will...
June 28th, 20220LANSING — After an unprecedented reversal of reproductive rights protections by the country's highest court, there is now some confusion about what that means for abortions among Michigan officials and health care providers.
This week, Michigan's governor and attorney general clarified that due to a pending lawsuit in the Michigan...
June 24th, 20220WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has officially overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized women's constitutional right to abortion.
The court, in a 6-3 ruling powered by its conservative majority, upheld a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The vote was 5-4 to...
April 8th, 20220LANSING — Governor Whitmer became the first governor to file a lawsuit to protect abortion rights, in anticipation of a possible overturning of an overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Whitmer filed the suit using her executive authority to ask the Michigan Supreme Court to immediately resolve whether Michigan’s...
February 17th, 20220DEARBORN HEIGHTS — The Michigan Supreme Court unanimously threw out part of a Dearborn Heights man's 2014 conviction in the shooting death of a woman the previous year, saying his constitutional rights were violated.
The court, which began reviewing the case in October, decided that Ted Wafer, who was sentenced to 17 years in...
December 7th, 20210DEARBORN — The Michigan Supreme Court has appointed Judge Gene Hunt as chief judge of the 19th District Court, Wayne County's second-largest district court, for a third two-year term, effective Jan. 1.
By court rule (MCR 8.110), a chief judge is the presiding officer of the court and is responsible for caseload management and...
October 7th, 20210DEARBORN HEIGHTS — The Michigan Supreme Court is hearing arguments in the case of a man sentenced to 17 years in prison for the shooting death of a woman in 2013.
Ted Wafer of Dearborn Heights is asking the court to reconsider his second-degree murder and manslaughter convictions.
He is arguing that it was improper to be charged...
July 30th, 20210DETROIT — The Michigan Supreme Court has overturned the decisions of lower courts and ordered a proposed revision of Detroit’s city charter to appear on the August 3 ballot.
Usually a charter amendment proceeds to the ballot after earning approval from the governor and is rejected for the ballot if the governor vetoes it, but in...
October 9th, 20200DETROIT – Wayne County issued a new Emergency Public Health Order that clarifies and amplifies the COVID-19 orders issued by the state of Michigan.
County Executive Warren C. Evans said the order carries forward the public health safety precautions implemented by Governor Whitmer in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
A copy...
October 5th, 20200LANSING — Michigan main health authority has stepped into the ring, now that the state’s Supreme Court has deemed all of Governor Whitmer’s COVID-19 related executive orders since the April extension of the state of emergency unconstitutional.
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Director Robert Gordon has...
October 5th, 20200LANSING — Governor Whitmer’s administration is asking for clarification from the Michigan Supreme Court after it decided last Friday that her extensions of the state of emergency and subsequent executive orders concerning COVID-19 were unconstitutional.
Whitmer said previously that legally her orders would stay in effect for at...
October 3rd, 20200LANSING - After months of legal back and forth, the Michigan Supreme Court has finally deemed Governor Whitmer's continued state of emergency in Michigan unconstitutional.
The drama began with Whitmer leveraging decades-old laws to give herself emergency powers and bypass the legislature when extending her original state of emergency...
May 8th, 20200LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has sent a letter to the Michigan State Capitol Commission confirming that the Commission has the legal authority to prohibit the presence of firearms in the state Capitol, if it chooses to do so. The AG says that authority is consistent with the current state of the law regarding...
January 20th, 20200
LANSING – Last week, the Michigan Supreme Court adopted amendments to court rules to explicitly allow the public to bring cell phones into courthouses and courtrooms. The changes also allow the public to photograph court records. Previously, rules regarding cell phones and other personal electronic devices varied widely from...
January 14th, 20190LANSING - In an unanimous vote by her colleagues, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Bridget McCormack was elected chief justice on Wednesday, making this the first time in the state's history that the offices of governor, attorney general, secretary of state and chief justice are all held by women.
McCormack succeeds Steve Markman, the...
November 4th, 20180DETROIT – Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy issued a statement endorsing Justice Kurtis Wilder for election to Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday, Nov. 6.
"On November 6, the citizens of Michigan will be voting for one of the most important offices on the ballot, the Michigan Supreme Court,” Worthy said in the statement. “I have...
October 19th, 20181DEARBORN – Several key races are brewing that could alter the course municipalities and the state take as they face challenges like improving public education, fixing dilapidated infrastructure and lowering insurance premiums.
After interviews and deliberations on October 17, The Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC)...
April 13th, 20180By Farah Harb
The Arab American News
DEARBORN — Several community members, including fellow judges, were present Tuesday at a fundraiser for Justices Kurtis T. Wilder and Elizabeth T. Clement, hosted by Published Osama Siblani at La Pita.
Both justices are running for reelection this year.
Last year, Gov. Snyder...
January 5th, 20180DEARBORN — This year, Michigan residents will have an opportunity to take part in setting new goals by shaking up the state's leadership, as numerous critical offices in both Washington, D.C. and Lansing become open.
The primary election will be held on August 7 and the general election will be held on November 6.
United States...
