The GOP-led state House passed a politically-charged bill Wednesday to ratchet down the legal authority of formal opinions from the Michigan Attorney General.
The bill would dilute a key power used by state attorneys general of both parties to offer binding advice on constitutional questions and interpretations of state law.
Attorney general opinions are interpretations of state law that can be binding on state agencies and local units of government. The Legislature can pass a law to override the effects of an opinion and the courts can overrule them.
The bill is part of an ongoing feud between House Republicans and Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel, who issued an opinion earlier this year that blocked House GOP-ordered budget cuts. The House sued Nessel to reverse the opinion and the case was settled out of court.
House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) said he wants to rein in the opinion power “because we have a very political attorney general who could bind state departments with very political decisions.”
Nessel’s office declined to comment on the legislation.
Representative Thomas Kuhn (R-Troy), the bill sponsor, said attorney general opinions should be looked upon as informational, but not legally binding.
“Why base it on who’s sitting in an office rather than the strength of the argument itself, the strength of the legal reasoning,” he said. “To me, that’s what really should count – not whether it comes from a certain person in a certain office.”
Representative Kara Hope (D-Holt), an attorney who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, said one of the purposes of attorney general opinions is to advise decision-makers on whether a policy would survive a legal challenge. She said the legislation is “a political game” aimed at a Republican nemesis.
“The Republicans have had her in their sights probably since she started, but certainly in this term they’ve taken shots at her all throughout to limit her power, to limit her authority,” she said.
Hope called the bill “another waste of time” when the Legislature should be focused on finishing the budget before the July 1 deadline. The bill now goes to the state Senate, which has a Democratic majority.
