Here is today's civics lesson: Michigan parents have no right to be involved in a serious way when it comes to input for local school districts. Parents are irrelevant when it comes to charting a course in local schools when it comes to direction and guidelines. Parents have no right in Michigan to recall the school board in their local district even if they do everything by the book. Parents simply have no right to local control as promised by state lawmakers no matter what they may tell you. The lesson also includes the sobering truth that if you are Christian or Conservative you simply have no right to question what goes on in your local school district under any circumstance. It’s also quite clear that if you are Christian or Conservative that what you think doesn’t mean anything to many sitting judges in Michigan courtrooms.
If you find my premise to be far fetched here is today’s number: 22. That is the number of times a group of Williamston parents have had their legal pursuit of a recall of the local school board rejected. The long slow process is also eating up months of time and piles of resources.
It has become perfectly clear that their effort will continue to get buried in a blizzard of anti-Conservative and anti-Christian activism from the behind the bench. The judicial actions appear coordinated to make sure that liberal efforts to promote the far left idea of transgenderism and to make sure it’s preserved, upheld, and in fact codified without actually being the law.
Many parents in Williamston were outraged when its School Board voted to run roughshod over the wishes of those living in the district. Sentiment ran more than 4 to 1 against provisions of new transgender and gender identity policies being added to the district handbook last fall. Despite the outcry from the community, board members rammed through policies that would give those that identify as a gender other than what they were actually born, additional protections than students that identify as ordinary boys and girls.
Following the vote by the board over the objections of hundreds of community members, the parents decided to move forward with a recall effort against the School Board. Their first three efforts were blocked at the county level but language was finally approved after several weeks by a 2 to 1 vote of the panel charged with making the decision. That decision was finally reached in early January.
On the panel was Judge Richard Garcia of Ingham County who also happens to head the local Probate division for the County. That’s important because when those targeted for recall appealed, arguing the language wasn’t clear enough, every single Judge in Ingham County qualified to hear the case recused themselves because of Garcia’s presence on the panel. That’s right 11 judges just couldn’t find a way to decide if two sentence recall language was easy enough to understand. Every single one recused themselves. So a couple more weeks slipped away.
Then the case was then kicked to Shiawassee County and the Judge there said no thanks. The same thing also happened in Jackson County. Thanks but no thanks.
It finally landed on the desk of Judge Patrick Conlin Jr. in Washtenaw County. He finally heard Oral arguments on April 10, 2018, more than 3 months after the initial recall language had been approved and 13 other judges had recused themselves.
On May 1 he returned with his decision overturning the panels 2 to 1 vote and said the language was not clear enough and therefore did not qualify and the whole effort would have to start over. Judge Conlin said in effect the people in the district are just not smart enough to figure out what the recall language means.
Let’s see if you can figure it out, here is the exact wording of the recall language rejected by Judge Conlin: ‘VOTED YES TO PASS GENDER IDENTITY POLICY 8011 ON 11/6/17. BOARD CITES TITLE IX AND MICHIGAN CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION (ELLIOT-LARSEN) ACT AS LEGAL REFERENCES WHEN NEITHER GENDER IDENTITY NOR GENDER EXPRESSION ARE MENTIONED IN THOSE DOCUMENTS.’
Seems pretty straightforward to me and I’m a product of public schools myself. So if I can figure it out, I’m guessing you were able to follow it too.
It however gets far worse than that; Judge Conlin elevated himself as the sole-decider of who is protected under Title IX in Michigan and who is protected under Michigan’s Civil Rights laws. In fact Judge Conlin appointed himself as the one to decide who will and will not be included under the Elliot Larsen Civil Rights laws in Michigan. In his opinion sending the whole thing back to square one Conlin wrote this in part, “Absent express legislation it is the function of the judiciary to determine whether or not gender identity and gender expression are protected classes under the law.”
It is?
I guess Michigan can go ahead and disband the legislature altogether because their work is done. It is up to the judges to decide what’s what “absent express legislation” as to how anything will work or be decided going forward. I am glad to know we don’t need to bother voting or going to the polls because short of “express legislation” Judge Conlin and his colleagues will be more than happy to tell us how things are going to be. I’d like to personally thank Judge Conlin for clearing up all of my misconceptions. I always thought this nation was a nation of laws but apparently I was mistaken.
To turn a phrase, this is ‘Legislation Without Representation.’ It is also very, very dangerous. It is also very time consuming.
If you look at the calendar you will realize it’s now June and the parents in Williamston are no closer to getting their day at the ballot box. They did everything right and they returned to the Ingham County Election Commission this week with a half dozen different versions of one sentence recall language for petitions. Incredibly the partisans once again railroaded the effort. The board rejected every single version of language. Judge Garcia for his part did in fact vote yes on 4 of the versions put forth but County Clerk Barb Byrum and Treasurer Eric Shertzing voted against the language. At one time there was hope the recall might make it to the voters for a Special Election in May. Now there is doubt it will even make it to the ballot in November.
The lesson here for parents is don’t bother to fight the School Board because unless you are marching to a very left-wing drummer what you think does not matter. And for the record the courts will be deciding anything of importance if the legislature hasn’t gotten around to passing some silly law on the matter. The folks in the black robes will go ahead and take care of it.
This is an outrage and the residents of Michigan had better take note because even if you like the Judges decision the next Judge that thinks they can do the work of all three branches of government may send your case back to square one.
Be careful what you wish for.
Steve Gruber is a conservative talk show host with 25 affiliates in Michigan. "The Steve Gruber Show" launched in 2012 with just four affiliates and has grown into the most powerful name in talk radio across Michigan. Steve has been named “Best Morning Personality” by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters five years in a row. His conservative, common-sense philosophy was developed during his time growing up in rural Michigan. Steve’s early career found him in several newsrooms including WILX, Lansing where he honed his investigative journalism and interviewing skills. He became the main news anchor of the station and before long was offered a job with NBC in Columbus, Ohio. While working for NBC, he covered the incredible launch of John Glenn, age 77, into space at Cape Canaveral, White Supremacists in Ohio, and the deadly game of selling prescription medication online. Steve was nominated for an Emmy in 2000. To read more of this reports — Click Here Now.