Taking an opposing side to that of Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said Saturday that he will defend the state’s constitutional protection of public pensions in Detroit’s bankruptcy filing, the Detroit Free-Press reported on Saturday. Invoking his role as “the people’s attorney,” Schuette said that he will submit a filing today to intervene in the city’s federal bankruptcy proceedings, even after his office opposed efforts in a state court earlier this month to halt the bankruptcy filing in challenges brought by pensioners and lawyers for the city’s pension funds. Schuette said that he will intervene “on behalf of southeast Michigan pensioners who may be at risk of losing their hard-earned benefits,” in accordance with his responsibility as attorney general to defend the Michigan Constitution.
