In the spirit of fuchsia...
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Michigan Secretary of Usurpation
Jocelyn Benson |
Lansing — Michigan Republicans are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hit pause on a federal lawsuit alleging GOP gerrymandering, a move that could disrupt a settlement agreement announced Friday by Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
Work with me on this one. You mean to tell me that the Michigan GOP filed in SCOTUS to stay a lawsuit alleging they participated in gerrymandering through the Emergency Manager Law for the fake Detroit Bankruptcy where the Detroit Land Bank Authority was a creditor to put people out of their families' generational homes, based upon fake property tax foreclosure, asset forfeiture fraud schemes they introduced, and promulgated through money they laundered through their campaigns into their legislative back pockets, for the purposes of redistricting based upon the people who survived the reign of terror from the "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending)?
Well, that is awkward, considering that there is another case in federal court, at the judicial threshold of the same exact matter, which means that this Detroit case could be, possibly, enjoined?
Benson's deal with plaintiffs would require Michigan to redraw at least 11 state House districts. It would likely force a recalibration of an unknown number of surrounding districts as well.
Stay with me because this is the part where I have serious privatization issues going on. I need someone to explain to me why the Michigan Secretary of State can negotiate in a matter pending before the court, and not the Attorney General, without advise and consent of the Senate, from the Executive Branch, by disregarding existing law, where only the Legislature can make law. That is called a usurpation, the last time I read my Michigan Petition for Writ of Quo Warranto.
But attorneys for Republican lawmakers are asking the nation’s highest court to intervene and delay any action in the suit until justices consider arguments in similar gerrymandering cases out of North Carolina and Maryland they are expected to take up in March.
Looks like that Detroit Land Bank Authority case is going to be on hold until March.
“The Supreme Court will be ruling soon on the exact issues presented in this case, and this afternoon we asked the United States Supreme Court to stay this entire proceeding,” attorney Charlie Spies told The Detroit News by email.
State House Speaker Lee Chatfield of Levering, Rep. Aaron Miller of Sturgis and several congressional Republicans directed their request to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a Democratic nominee.
The Michigan lawsuit alleges maps approved by the Republican-led Legislature in 2011 intentionally diluted the power of Democratic voters by “packing” or “cracking” them into specific districts.
It did. It was called fake property tax and mortgage foreclosure schemes. I was there when they came up with the idea.
The new districts would only apply for the 2020 elections. Voters last fall approved the creation of a citizen redistricting commission that will draw maps for 2022 and beyond.
That citizen redistricting commission is another one of those "Authorities", like the Detroit Land Bank Authority, a Public Private Partnership.
As part of the deal with Benson, which would require approval by a three-judge panel overseeing the case, plaintiffs agreed to drop challenges to congressional and state Senate districts, along with four other state House Districts.
I should file an amicus curiea monkey wrench just for fun. I always wanted to file in SCOTUS. I want to have fun making them waive the fees and giving me special powers in case law. The Justices need to bond with me, anyway.
The 11 state House districts targeted in the agreement “represent some of the most egregious examples of the unconstitutional attempts by past legislators to draw legislative districts in an effort to rig the partisan outcomes of elections,” Benson told reporters at a Friday briefing.
Several neighboring districts would likely need to be redrawn as well, but “that’s going to be a question for the Legislature,” Benson said.
The Michigan gerrymandering case is currently scheduled to go to trial Feb. 5. In their application to the U.S. Supreme Court, GOP attorneys suggested federal judges are aware of settlement talks but made clear they do not plan to delay the trial for “any reason.”
Plaintiff attorneys submitted the proposed settlement Friday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
“The next step is whether the court will accept it, and we’ll go from there,” Benson said.
February 5, 2019 is the magic day because it is not just the start of the gerrrymandering trial, it is also the State of the Union Address!
Benson: Deal avoids 'upheaval'
The Detroit Democrat said she pushed plaintiffs to drop congressional and state Senate district challenges to minimize “upheaval." But the deal still reflects her view that gerrymandering occurred in a way that violated the constitutional mandate of “one person, one vote.”
No, she is dropping the congressional and state Senate district challenges because she knows that stuff is criminal. Who gave her the powers to negotiate settlements?
Benson has been the subject of considerable GOP scorn the past week after signaling her intent to settle the federal lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters, a group of Democratic voters and attorney Mark Brewer, former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party.
Ah, she is with the "Legal Genius" (trademark pending) Mark Brewer.
Michigan Republican Party spokesman Tony Zammit blasted the deal, saying Benson “has shown she cannot be impartial in this case, and therefore she must be replaced as it’s defendant.” Former Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, a Republican, had defended the GOP maps.
Can you smell the fear? Both Republicans and Democrats in Michigan are terrified right about now. #FreeMariaButina
Benson denied partisan motivation for settling the case she inherited after taking office this month, suggesting she did not want to waste taxpayer resources fighting a case she believes the state would lose. The deal would give the Republican-led Legislature the first opportunity to redraw the state House lines, subject to judicial review.
She was not partisan, she is desperately trying to preserve her freedom.
“It does not matter to me who or what parties drew the districts," Benson said. "What matters to me is whether they were drawn to circumvent the will of the voters.”
Technically, if you snatch people's homes, they will no longer live there, which means there are no longer voters, so I guess you can say the will of the voters were not circumvented if no one resides in the properties anymore.
The proposed consent decree would require the state to redraw state House districts 24, 32, 51, 55, 60, 63, 76, 91, 92, 94 and 95. Six of those seats are currently held by Republicans and five are controlled by Democrats. Republicans currently represent 58 of 110 state House districts, a six-seat majority.
I bet they picked those State House Districts arbitrarily and capriciously.
“The Democrats know it will be nearly impossible to redraw these 11 districts without affecting countless others causing electoral chaos,” Zammit said. “Worse yet, outdated 10-year-old data will be utilized to draw the new lines which will not accurately reflect the demographics of our state.”
All those data are corrupt. Please. All you have to do is compare the voter rolls with a drive by of the addresses.
The deal does not dictate how the Republican-led Legislature should redraw the state House districts, but it encourages them to do so in “transparent proceedings open to the public.”
Encouragement can be creative when you use terms like "should" and "may" because there is not statutory oversight to challenge anything coming out of the privatized redistricting commission.
The 11 targeted districts include two Republican-held seats in Metro Detroit, both in Macomb County, currently represented by Rep. Steve Marino of Harrison Township and Pamela Hornberger of Chesterfield Township.
I wonder if these negotiations took place in Michigan.
None of the settlement districts are north of Mount Pleasant, meaning seats in the northern Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula where Republicans are dominant are unlikely to be affected.
That is because southeastern Michigan, specifically Detroit, has the "highest concentration of voter potential", (my new term for what happens after the Michigan passes laws for stealin' the children, the land, and the votes.)
The federal court would be responsible for establishing a deadline for the redrawn state House maps and determining how it would judge the partisan fairness of the proposed districts.
The federal court should not be responsible for participating in a complex fraud scheme dealing with multiple, ongoing federal investigations.
Brewer ties blasted
Republican lawmakers have denied overt political bias in the district boundaries they approved in 2011, but emails between map makers revealed in the federal case have included
partisan references and commentary on the prospects of
maintaining GOP power.
If you go through my archive, you can find the links to what they were talking about and who were the biggest cheerleaders.
Benson told reporters she expected Republican opposition to the settlement despite its limited nature, which means state senators just elected to four-year terms would not need to run for re-election in 2020.
By what right does the Secretary of State, through a private attorney, unless Brewer is a Special Counsel, which he is not and should know better. Well, on second thought, Brewer does know better which is why he is covering his arse for his engagements with Perkins Coie Sucks operations through the DNC and MDP.
“I think no matter what decision I made in this case, someone was going to be upset, whether we went to trial or whether we settled or not,” she said.
Well, I say you, my dear, shall be called to bear witness by what right you have to even hold that office,
Republicans have blasted Benson for connections to Brewer, the former state Democratic party chairman who donated $500 to her campaign and is a lead attorney for plaintiffs in the case.
The lady doth have a reputation for just about anything to get elected.
Earlier this week, the Michigan GOP accused Benson and Brewer of trying to orchestrate “the greatest partisan power grab in Michigan history,” and attorneys for Republican lawmakers asked court permission to demand their communications donating back to 2017.
Michigan GOP is asking for the Wikileaks files and the DNC servers? Oh, this is going to be interesting because the MDP was running shop in Detroit through lots of political campaigns. This sounds like a call for the FEC.
Benson noted she raised more than $1 million for her campaign and received donations from both Republicans and Democrats.
Everyone does the nasty together in Michigan politics, you just do not know it...yet.
“If anyone giving me $500 can influence a decision I made when you raise that much money from thousands of people, then we’re in trouble,” she said. “And so that’s certainly not the case here.”
The settlement does not require any state payments to cover the cost of plaintiff attorneys but makes clear that the parties could agree to award fees at a later date.
“How much money are the taxpayers of Michigan going to be paying Mark Brewer’s law firm in this case?” Zammit said.
Excellent question! I have one better. Who approved Brewer's law firm to take on this case?
This is nothing but another Public Private Partnership takeover of Michigan.
And that ends my incredible ability of throwing legal monkey wrenches in cases dealing with SIGTARP.
Again, the moral of the story is, "Do not be mean to my Sweetie. Period".
Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©
