Locked capitol doors lead to Michigan unions’ right-to-work lawsuit

DETROIT (PAI) — The long-running war over Michigan’s controversial, Republican-engineered “Right to Work” (for less) laws is headed to court.

The state American Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of unions asked a state court to rule that officials blatantly violated Michigan’s Open Meetings Act when they locked the public out of the state Capitol in 2012 as lawmakers debated the two controversial statutes.

The motion is based on deposition testimony, e-mails, text messages and other new evidence that reveal state officials, in addition to locking the doors of the Capitol, ordered Republican legislative staffers to occupy – pack – the gallery overlooking the floor of the House of Representatives in a deliberate attempt to prevent concerned citizens from watching the legislative sessions.

“Never in the history of Michigan has there been such a calculated effort to deny the public access to the democratic process,” said Michael Steinberg, the ACLU’s Michigan legal director. “The lockdown of the Capitol and the stacking of the gallery during the enactment of a controversial law make a mockery of the principles of open government and transparency.”

The lawsuit, filed Oct. 29 by the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council, the Michigan Education Association (MEA), the state AFL-CIO and Change To Win, stems from the contentious events of Dec. 2012, when the Michigan Capitol doors were locked to prevent additional people from coming to witness or engage their legislators while the hotly contested right-to-work bills were being debated on the House and Senate floors.

The public, including some journalists, were locked out for more than four hours on Dec. 6, 2012, while legislators debated and voted on the bills. While individuals already in the Capitol could stay, people waiting outside were not allowed to enter.

That day and beforehand, tens of thousands of workers and their allies surrounded the Capitol, demonstrating their opposition to right-to-work and demanding to be heard.

“The state Capitol is the people’s house, and it should remain open to the public,” said MEA President Steve Cook. “I and many others peacefully assembled. We were locked out of the Capitol that day and denied the opportunity to participate in the democratic process. Lawmakers can’t say they are all about the rule of law and then decide the rules don’t apply to them.”

The coalition’s motion, filed in the state Court of Claims, asks the court to invalidate the right-to-work law because of the unprecedented measures state leaders took to exclude the public from legislative proceedings when passing it, including directing Republican staffers to fill the House gallery in order to prevent constituents from being able to observe the debate.

The motion cites deposition testimony of GOP officials and staff telling legislative staff to take vacation days and sit in the gallery in plain clothes to deny seats to those who might oppose right-to-work.

For example, an e-mail from Peter Langley, director of the Senate Majority Policy Office, sent on December 6, reads: “The House is having Republican staff report to the House gallery for the day – something to consider for our side.”

On December 10, Ralph Fiebig Jr. a House Republican constituent relations staff member, sent an e-mail inviting all constituent relations staff to meet him at the Capitol the next morning. He wrote: “I would like everyone to get there before 6:55 a.m. in case they allow us to enter before 7 a.m. That way, we may be able to get up the stairs to the gallery entrance and in the front line before the public is allowed to enter the building.”

Another Republican staffer, Jennifer Kaminski, texted: “Speaker had staff go sit in the gallery this morning to take up space.”

The suit says the lockout at the Capitol and stacking of the gallery compounded other methods of denying the public from having input. The two right-to-work bills – one covering the private sector and the other covering public workers – were abruptly introduced during the last days of the lame-duck legislative session, already a period of diminished public accountability.

Rather than allowing the bills to go through the standard committee hearing process where the public would have been invited to comment, the right-to-work language was introduced for the first time on the House and Senate floors on the same day the bills passed.

“We should never forget the underhanded way in which the legislation was adopted,” said Patrick Devlin, secretary-treasurer of the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council. “One of the most important pieces of legislation in Michigan history was adopted on a fast-track, in a lame-duck session behind closed doors without public input. It was outrageous.”

The lawsuit was brought under the Open Meetings Act, a state law enacted to ensure that government remains transparent and accountable to the public. The Open Meetings Act provides that the laws and acts of a public body may be invalidated by a court when official meetings, deliberations, or votes are held in a place not open and accessible to the public.

The lawsuit also asserts that closure of the Capitol prevented citizens from exercising their 1^st Amendment right to petition the government and their right under the Michigan Constitution to instruct their representatives.

Besides the unions and the ACLU, the suit was filed on behalf of MEA’s president, Cook, journalist Bonnie Bucqueroux, Rick Trainor, State Sen. Rebekah Warren and State Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Brandon Dillon. Attorneys from two pro-worker law firms, the MEA, the Auto Workers and the ACLU are handling the case.

Photo: The GOP governor and legislature locked the people out of the Capitol during 2012 protests against their planned passage of right to work (for less) laws. Paul Sancya/AP