A federal judge has reopened a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Michigan’s emergency manager law, an attorney for plaintiffs in the case said Friday, the Detroit News reported on Saturday. John Philo, legal director for the Sugar Law Center, said U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh ruled Thursday that the suit may proceed. The decision comes after Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes, who is presiding over Detroit’s historic bankruptcy case, agreed three separate times that a stay on the suit should be lifted. Judge Rhodes has required that the lawsuit be amended to drop a request for the removal of Detroit’s Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr. Steeh’s ruling means the case taking on the legality of the law statewide will now advance in Detroit’s federal court while a new appeal by the state is pending, Philo said.
