Michigan House to Vote Wednesday on Repeal of Governor’s Emergency Powers Act

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the state during a speech in Lansing, Mich., on March 2, 2021. (Michigan Office of the Governor via AP)

LANSING, Mich.—The Michigan House of Representatives is expected to vote on July 21 on whether or not to repeal the 1945 law used by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to lock down the state in 2020 at the height of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, according to state Rep. Jeff Yaroch (R).

“I support the bill because the 1945 Act is redundant, unconstitutional and because the repeal is very popular with the people, as evidenced by the success of the petition drive. My sense is there is strong support for the repeal in the House,” Yaroch told The Epoch Times.

The Michigan Senate voted to repeal the law on July 15, two days after the state board of canvassers certified that a citizens’ group called Unlock Michigan had collected more than the 340,000 signatures required to put the repeal on the ballot in the next general election.

The measure to repeal passed in the senate 20-15 on a straight party-line vote.

Under Michigan law, if both the Senate and the House vote to repeal the Emergency Powers of the Governor Act of 1945, the law would stand repealed without going to a vote of the people, and it would not be subject to a veto by the governor because the legislation came from the people through the initiative process.

On Oct. 2, 2020, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the 1945 law was an undue ceding of legislative powers to the governor and, therefore, unconstitutional. The court’s decision came months after Unlock Michigan’s petition drive was well-underway.

The group’s spokesman, Fred Wzolek, told The Epoch Times that, at that time, the decision was made to go ahead with the petition drive in order to get the “unconstitutional law off the books so as not to allow another abuse of power by a future governor.”