Michigan: Brief filed to Supreme Court on Muskegon Drain Commissioner recall attempt

We have a really worthwhile read here. An appellate court ruled 3-0 that the Michigan "factual" standard does not mean "truthful." The recall effort is against Commissioner Brenda Moore over an approval of a drain project.

The brief, filed by Moore's attorney Nick Curcio, does a great job of examining Michigan's recall law, its factual/truthfulness requirement and the 2012 legislative change that created the new recall law. As I noted, the law seemed to be specifically designed to limit recalls, so the fact that the Supreme Court may be looking into it is no surprise.

One other point of note. The brief, as well as this piece in the Michigan Bar Journal by Jason Hanselman, notes that Michigan adopted the recall in 1908. Other places claim that the state adopted it in 1913 (note this article from the Michigan Law Review in 1911 mentioning Oregon as the first state and not mentioning Michigan's law at all). It could be that 1913 was when the legislation laying out how to perform a recall went into effect, but this is another part of the Bermuda Triangle nature of the recall law.