Name: Group of businesses file suit against Whitmer, challenge executive authority
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Group of businesses file suit against Whitmer, challenge executive authority

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A group of five Michigan businesses filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, challenging the constitutionality of her "stay home" order that has paralyzed business in the state amid the deadly COVID-19 outbreak. The suit could be&nbsp;reaching for the U.S.&nbsp;Supreme Court in an attempt to limit the governor's executive power.The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, alleges the governor has "placed 10 million people under house arrest, and taken jobs away from nearly 1.2 million people, all without due process of law."The plaintiffs of the suit are: Birmingham-based residential brokerage Signature Southeby's International Realty Inc.; Canton-based commercial and municipal landscaping company Executive Property Management Inc.; Troy-based auto glass and chemicals exporter Intraco Corp. Inc.; Troy-based auto oil distributor Casite Intraco LLC; and Hillsdale jeweler Bahash &amp; Co LLC.The group is represented by Detroit-based law firm Butzel Long PC. Robert Gordon, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, is named as a co-defendant.The lawsuit challenges Whitmer's executive powers and seeks an immediate injunction."For the first time in our state's history — indeed, in our nation's history — the state government is mass quarantining healthy people instead of the sick," the lawsuit reads. "As a free people, we have the unalienable right to pursue happiness, which includes the freedom to make our own choices about our safety and welfare without unconstitutional interference. In the face of the coronavirus, it means the freedom to choose whether to stay at home, or to keep calm and carry on with the things that make life worth living."The plaintiffs lawyers allege the state has no significant evidence the virus is as deadly as reported, citing recent antibody tests that reveal the coronavirus was present in the U.S. far earlier than expected and therefore more people have been infected with no symptoms."The number of deaths caused by COVID-19, while unquestionably tragic, is not 'unprecedented,' as routinely claimed," the lawsuit says. "What is unprecedented is Governor Whitmer's response to it."The suit also makes mention of previous Michigan governors' responses to pandemics and outbreaks, such as Gov. Albert Sleeper allowing work during the Spanish flu. Michigan did not close down businesses during the polio epidemics of the late 1940s, or the 1968 pandemic Hong Kong flu.The plaintiffs' lawyers allege economic harm, but do not cite specific losses from clients. However, with 1.2 million unemployed, it's likely they have laid off employees to follow Whitmer's orders. Executive Property Management is now allowed to perform work following Whitmer's updated executive order last week."Plaintiffs want to reopen their business to help their current and former employees (whom they hope to rehire) put food on their tables, keep roofs over their heads, and clothes on their backs," the lawsuit says. "Governor Whitmer and Director Gordon forbid them from doing so under pain of criminal punishment and civil fines. Plaintiffs should not be forced to choose between risking criminal prosecution and economic sanctions on the one hand, or exercising their constitutional rights on the other."Editor's note: A previous version incorrectly identified the court to which the suit may be aspiring. Current version is accurate.RECOMMENDED FOR YOUMost Popular12345

A group of five Michigan businesses filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, challenging the constitutionality of her "stay home" order that has paralyzed business in the state amid the deadly COVID-19 outbreak. The suit could be&nbsp;reaching for the U.S.&nbsp;Supreme Court in an attempt to limit the governor's executive power.The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, alleges the governor has "placed 10 million people under house arrest, and taken jobs away from nearly 1.2 million people, all without due process of law."The plaintiffs of the suit are:...

Group of businesses file suit against Whitmer, challenge executive authority

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