Nessel loses in court AGAIN as judge blocks Whitmer admin from spending $644 million amid lawsuit

Via The Mid­west­ern­er:

As antic­i­pat­ed, the Michi­gan Court of Claims on Fri­day grant­ed a motion from House Repub­li­cans to tem­porar­i­ly block the Whit­mer admin­is­tra­tion from spend­ing $644 mil­lion in dis­put­ed state funds while lit­i­ga­tion con­tin­ues over the Legislature’s author­i­ty to dis­ap­prove work-project appro­pri­a­tions. […]

At the cen­ter of the dis­pute is a Decem­ber vote by the Repub­li­can-con­trolled House Appro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee to dis­ap­prove about $644 mil­lion in unspent “work project” appro­pri­a­tions sub­mit­ted by the Whit­mer admin­is­tra­tion to car­ry over to FY 2026.

Those funds are auto­mat­i­cal­ly rolled over under state law unless law­mak­ers on either chamber’s appro­pri­a­tions com­mit­tees act to reject with­in 30 days.

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Nes­sel issued a for­mal legal opin­ion ear­li­er this month assert­ing that the dis­ap­proval process used by House Repub­li­cans vio­lates the Michi­gan Con­sti­tu­tion, alleg­ing the abil­i­ty of a sin­gle leg­isla­tive com­mit­tee to nul­li­fy exec­u­tive spend­ing author­i­ty breach­es sep­a­ra­tion-of-pow­ers prin­ci­ples and side­steps the require­ments of bicam­er­al pas­sage and pre­sent­ment to the gov­er­nor.

Read the full sto­ry here.