Michigan state House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) speaks at a news conference in the state Capitol Building in support of minimum wage and sick leave reforms on Feb. 20, 2025. | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Nine bills approved during last year’s Democrat-controlled Legislature remain in limbo after a Michigan judge ruled the state Constitution requires the new Republican leadership in the House to forward them to the governor, but stopped short of ordering them to be sent.
The ruling came Thursday, after Michigan Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit to the Court of Claims earlier in February to compel GOP House Speaker Matt Hall to send nine bills the Legislature passed in the 2023-24 session to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for final approval.
The nine bills Hall says his legal team is reviewing include measures to leverage taxes to fund Detroit-area museums, expand eligibility for the State Police Retirement System and increase the amount public employers have to pay towards employees’ health insurance.
Hall has previously told members of the media that it’s not his obligation to clean up after the previous Democrat-led Legislature failed to send the governor all the bills that had been passed.
Judge Sima Patel disagreed with House Republican leadership in her decision, saying Senate Democrats have the constitutional right to have the bills presented to the governor with sufficient time to permit her to review them before they take effect.
However, Patel declined to order House Republicans to send Gov. Gretchen Whitmer the bills. The state Constitution does not specify which entities are responsible for presenting the bills in the current scenario, Patel said, and since state courts have declined to enforce legislative rules in the past, she would not order that in this case.
“Simply put, all bills passed by the Legislature must be presented to the Governor within time to allow 14 days for the Governor’s review prior to the first date that they could take effect— even those passed during a “lame duck” session in an even year,” Patel wrote in her decision.
Even though Democrats’ request to order the House to send the bills to the governor was denied, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) regaled the acknowledgement of the constitutional right Senate Democrats have to have bills presented to the governor in good time.
“This case was clear as day. The most solemn and fundamental duty we have as legislators is to uphold the Constitution, and I am grateful to Judge Patel for making that abundantly clear with her decision today. I hope that this serves as a signal to any legislator who attempts to skirt the rules: we will hold you accountable to doing right by the people of Michigan,” Brinks said. “Let’s now put this to bed and move forward with the work of the people – they’re counting on us.”
Hall, R-Richland Township, said that Patel’s ruling acknowledges the autonomy of the House to conduct its own business, and that leadership will take the ruling into consideration as the body continues its legal review of the situation.
“I’ve been saying since the beginning that the Senate could not sue a Speaker of the House because of a political disagreement and that the Court could not force the House to present bills from a previous session,” Hall said in a statement Thursday. “For some reason, the Senate decided to sue me anyway. That decision was clearly politically motivated, completely unprecedented, and – as the Court agrees – illegal. That was an embarrassing mistake by the Senate.”