Michigan Legislature kills law Whitmer used for virus rules

Republican lawmakers on Wednesday killed a law that underpinned coronavirus restrictions issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, wiping it from the books after Michigan’s Supreme Court declared the measure unconstitutional.

The Democrat is powerless to veto the citizen-initiated bill. A conservative group that organized the ballot drive next plans to target a public health law that enabled Whitmer’s administration to keep intact capacity restrictions and mask requirements for eight additional months until voluntarily lifting them in June after infections subsided amid vaccinations.

The GOP-led House voted 60-48 to repeal the 1945 law, with four Democrats joining all Republicans in support. It gave governors broad powers to declare an emergency and promulgate rules to “protect life and property or to bring the emergency situation within the affected area under control.” The legislation cleared the Senate last week.