An Ingham County Circuit Court judge adjourned a hearing Monday morning until next week over whether Detroit’s bankruptcy filing violated the state constitution. Judge Rosemarie Aquilina spoke briefly Monday in her courtroom and set July 29 as the date for the hearing to resume as she reiterated the case should remain a state issue. Aquilina is to hear from lawyers for Gov. Rick Snyder, who petitioned the court on Monday to move the lawsuit to U.S. District Court and let a bankruptcy judge rule on the matter. The judge has said that state law guards against retirement benefits being “diminished,” but there will be no such protection in federal bankruptcy court. She ordered lawyers for the state and Detroit’s General Retirement System and Police and Fire Retirement System to file a litany of briefs this week in preparation of Monday’s hearing. “They’re doing everything in their power to take this out of the state of Michigan and put it into federal court,” said Ronald King, an attorney for Detroit’s two pension funds. Meanwhile, state-level legal skirmishing over the Chapter 9 bankruptcy effort by Snyder and Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr is also quickly moving to the Michigan Court of Appeals. On Friday, Aquilina ruled Snyder and Orr violated the state constitution and ordered that Detroit’s federal bankruptcy filing be withdrawn. Attorney General Bill Schuette, on behalf of Snyder, filed an application for Appeals Court consideration of Aquilina’s order an hour after it was issued on Friday. Schuette asked the Appeals Court to put a hold on present and future lower-court proceedings and was planning to seek emergency consideration to expedite the process. During the Monday morning hearing, Aquilina declined to halt her previous orders. “This is a very important issue; I’m not going to stay anything,” she said from the bench. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Detroit, said Friday that Aquilina’s ruling justifies the need for congressional hearings on whether Detroit is misusing the bankruptcy process to slash retiree pensions and health insurance coverage. From The Detroit News: detroitnews/article/20130722/METRO01/307220060#ixzz2ZmhGaBJC
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 14:25:56 +0000
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