Michigan businesses sue Whitmer over executive order amid coronavirus crisis: 'What we need is a dose of common sense'

Courts still open? No idea.

either we are a free people or we’re not.

so far, not looking so good

Stupid Michiganders elected this NAZI and they will RE-ELECT her!! You can’t fix STUPID!

She creates problems that some will believe that only a liberal democrat in her position can solve. It’s what they do.

Stupid Michiganders elected this NAZI and they will RE-ELECT her!! You can’t fix STUPID!

Right, we all voted for her and we’re all stupid. You don’t know or understand the political landscape here in Michigan. We may not be Texas, but we’re not Virginia.

Most of how she got elected falls on Republican Party and their leaders. We didn’t have a good candidate. Bill Schuette ran a poor campaign. He drew both praise and criticism for the way he has handled criminal investigations of the Flint water crisis and former MSU sports doctor Larry Nassar, as well as his lengthy, costly, and unsuccessful fight against same-sex marriage, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015.

He turned down running for Michigan SC Judge this year instead wants to help the House Republicans in Michigan maintain the majority.

Thank you TheRake. Fellow Michigander here.

This is the deal folks. Trump needs to win Michigan Wisconsin Pennsylvania, so the Dem governors of those states are doing everything they can to tank their economies, put as many people out of work as they can in the hope that super high unemployment figures in those states will get President Trump defeated in November.
That’s what it’s all about.

If one voted for her, they are STUPID!

This whole thing is more and more bizarre. Random “rules” that vary from state to state. I guess Lawn Care is considered “essential” here in PA, since the trucks are up and down our street all the time.

When do the people in Michigan, who are unable to cut their own grass, get tickets for creating a public nuisance with their overgrown lawns?

I agree with your assessment of the failures of Schuette and the Republicans in Michigan but in the end I must agree with Ann Archy that you can’t fix stupid. Michigan voters elected the monster they now suffer under. There is no good reason on God’s green earth to ever vote for a Marxocrat, in any election, at any level. They have become demons of Satan himself who have done nothing but destroy everything that falls under their purview. As bad as the Republicans may be the Marxocrats are always and everywhere orders of magnitude worse.

HEY, HEY!
HO, HO!
PHIL IN THE BLANC HAS GOT TO GO!

You are probably right. Just like the Chicoms chose to sacrifice what will likely be millions of their own people to unleash the Coronavirus on the world to defeat the US and it’s allies.

This women seems very vindictive and is working out her mental issues on the National stage.I hope the snowbirds make it home safely before her next explosion.

Good, he’s going to sue Virginia too.

It seems every 28 days M. Whitmer’s wheels come off.

Here’s a dose of common sense for you: Pay attention to who you elect for public office; if you elect a wannabe Nazi nutbag, don’t be surprised when you get fascism as a result.

The over-reach is breathtaking.

My Governor, in Kentucky, FORBIDS me to drive across the bridge into Indiana. It’s 3 miles away?

This is all completely unnecessary. In fact, it’s counterproductive. We’re not going to have a vaccine for MONTHS, if ever. The ONLY way we are going to survive this virus is: for young, healthy people to get out their and go to work. When enough of them catch and get over this virus, it will die from natural causes.

Delaying this just increases the time that the elderly and ill must separate themselves from society.

I would love to see an emergency injunction against her completely arbitrary rules.

One of the lawsuits is Michigan Nursery and Landscape Association et al v. Whitmer et al., MIWD 1:20-cv-00331 (17 Apr 2020).

Doc 1, the 32 pp. COMPLAINT is available at PACER, for a fee.

It is captioned:

MICHIGAN NURSERY AND LANDSCAPE ASSOCIATION, WELTON MAINTENANCE, LLC d/b/a WELTON LAWN CARE, EXPERIGREEN – DETROIT, LLC d/b/a EXPERIGREEN LAWN CARE, RAY WIEGAND’s NURSERY, INC., AGS HOLDINGS, INC. d/b/a LUSH LAWN, JENNIFER TARRENCE, and BRUTON’S LAWN CARE, LLC, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated,
Plaintiffs,
vs.
GRETCHEN WHITMER, in her official capacity as Governor, and DANA NESSEL, in her official capacity as Attorney General.
Defendants

The COMPLAINT starts:

Plaintiffs Michigan Nursery and Landscape Association, Welton Maintenance, LLC d/b/a Welton Lawn Care, ExperiGreen – Detroit, LLC d/b/a ExperiGreen Lawn Care, Ray Wiegand’s Nursery, Inc., AGS Holdings, Inc. d/b/a Lush Lawn, Jennifer Tarrence, and Bruton’s Lawn Care, LLC, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, bring this lawsuit to vindicate their rights under the United States and Michigan Constitutions to provide lawn and landscaping services and to sell plants and other garden supplies at retail notwithstanding Defendant Governor Whitmer’s Executive Order 2020-42 (COVID-19). Plaintiffs bring their Complaint for declaratory and emergency injunctive relief against Defendant Gretchen Whitmer, in her official capacity as Governor, and Dana Nessel, in her official capacity as Attorney General, and allege as follows:
INTRODUCTION
1. Amid a global health pandemic and economic uncertainty, Governor Whitmer has issued a series of executive orders that, in the name of protecting public health, require cessation of private business for numerous corporations and partnerships deemed “nonessential.” While Plaintiffs do not disagree with the need to protect public health, the Governor’s most recent action, Executive Order 2020-42 (COVID-19), does not accomplish that goal as applied to Plaintiffs.
2. The purpose of the Governor’s cessation-of-business order is to prevent person-toperson contact and spread of COVID-19. But the likelihood of such contact and spread does not depend on whether a business activity is “essential” or “nonessential.” It depends on the type of business activity conducted. When it comes to lawn care and landscaping, for example, services can be conducted with zero or virtually zero contact between service providers and customers or among service providers. The same is true of retail garden centers that provide for curbside pickup.
That is why, on information and belief, Michigan is the only state in the country currently prohibiting such services. Nat’l Assoc of Landscape Prof’s, State by State COVID-19 Guidance,
https://www.landscapeprofessionals.org/Coronavirus/State_by_State_COVID_Guidance.aspx
(accessed April 15, 2020).
3. The Governor tacitly acknowledges this reality. Executive Order 2020-42 allows government employees to participate in activities that are indistinguishable from those in which Plaintiffs engage, including “the maintenance of safe and sanitary public parks so as to allow for outdoor activity.” Homeowners are also allowed to perform these tasks on their private property. So while a county worker can mow grass and trim foliage in a public park, and an individual home owner can engage in those same activities in their back yard, Plaintiffs cannot provide those services for compensation in a customer’s back yard, even if that customer is elderly or infirm and cannot perform those activities for themselves. And while a Michigan citizen can order shrubbery and other foliage from innumerable online garden centers and have their purchases delivered to their home, retail garden centers are strictly prohibited from online or other sales and a contactless curbside pickup.
4. Plaintiffs and those like them have tried repeatedly to bring their concerns to the attention of Governor Whitmer and her staff but to no avail. Michigan remains the only state in the country prohibiting commercial landscaping and lawn-care services.
5. Given that Plaintiffs’ business activities involve isolated work that is identical to activities that government employees, private homeowners, and even online businesses are already allowed to perform, there is nominal if any public-health benefit from Executive Order 2020-42 as applied to lawn care, landscaping, and retail garden centers that take appropriate precautions, like Plaintiffs. Conversely, Executive Order 2020-42’s economic impact on these businesses and interstate commerce is devasting. The Order has caused the loss of thousands of jobs, and it is likely to result in the permanent shuttering of hundreds of businesses. As of the filing of this Complaint, the United States unemployment rate is over 13%, retail sales have fallen at a historic pace, and gross domestic product is shrinking at a pace not seen since the Great Depression. Over 800,000 unemployment claims have been filed in Michigan alone in the last 30 days.
6. Accordingly, Executive Order 2020-42, as applied to Plaintiffs, violates the dormant Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. The Order also violates Plaintiffs’ due-process rights and constitutes a regulatory taking under the United States and Michigan Constitutions.
7. Plaintiffs request an emergency preliminary injunction that allows them to immediately resume providing lawn care, landscaping, and retail-garden-sales services. They also request class certification, a permanent injunction that protects the class, and class damages and attorney fees.

Also:

41. The Order does not include landscaping or lawn care services or retail-garden sales within its exceptions for essential services. To remove any doubt, the Governor released a series of FAQs related to the Order that included the following:
EO 2020-42: May landscaping, lawncare, tree service, irrigation, and related outdoor maintenance companies operate under this order?
In nearly all cases, no. A business cannot designate workers to perform these services unless the service is necessary to maintain the safety, sanitation, and essential operations of a residence. This is a narrow exception that only permits in-person work that is strictly necessary to address a circumstance that immediately and genuinely impairs the habitability of a home during the emergency; the exception will be satisfied, at most, rarely. Routine concerns, such as about longer grass increasing insects, pests, or allergies, do not qualify. Nor can workers leave the home to perform these services at business facilities: the exception applies only to residences. Any necessary in-person work that is permitted under the order must be done in accordance with the mitigation measures required under section 10 of the order. The order does not prohibit homeowners from tending to their own yards as they see fit. [https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0,9753,7-406-98810- 525363--,00.html (emphasis added).]

Also:

66. Some members of the public are physically incapable of performing the landscaping and lawn-care services that Plaintiffs provide. They hire Plaintiffs and similarly situated companies and employees to provide these services for them.
67. Because Executive Order 2020-42 prevents Plaintiffs from performing services, these members of the public are left with few options.
68. Notwithstanding all this, local governments are starting to issue citations for property owners who cannot keep up with their yard work:
[image of Notice of Ordinance Violation]
Request for an Injunction
69. Plaintiffs do not impugn Governor Whitmer’s motivation in promulgating her executive orders to stop the spread of COVID-19. But they do contest those orders’ constitutionality as applied to Plaintiffs and those similarly situated to them, and they contest the State’s authority to appropriate Plaintiffs’ real and personal business property without just compensation.

The COMPLAINT seeks class action recognition and sets forth three counts:

COUNT I – Violation of the Commerce Clause, U.S. Const. Art. I, Sec. 8, cl. 3, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Classes 1-3 only)
COUNT II – Violation of the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Classes 1-3 only)
COUNT III – Violation of the Takings Clauses of the U.S. & Michigan Constitutions and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Classes 1-4)