6th Circuit Court of Appeals: Stay-athome order puts burden on candidates
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has concurred with a lower court’s ruling that the state’s stayat-home order imposes a severe burden on candidates’ ability to collect petition signatures in order to qualify for the August primary election.
Last month, Eric Esshaki, a Birmingham attorney running against U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (DRochester Hills), filed a lawsuit stating that the order, combined with the state’s strict enforcement of statutory signature gathering requirements, placed a severe burden on his ability to run for elected office.
On April 20, U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Berg issued a ruling that the state’s enforcement of both the executive order and the statutory ballot-access requirements worked in tandem to impose a “severe burden” on Esshaki’s ability to seek elected office and violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
On Tuesday, a threejudge panel of the 6th Circuit
Court of Appeals issued their decision in response to an appeal from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The governor had filed a motion for a stay pending appeal with the U.S. District Court, but was denied on April 25.
In addition, the panel decided, by a 2 to 1 majority, to set aside the Judge Berg’s order to extend the petition filing deadline from April 21 to Friday, May 8. Judge Berg has scheduled a video hearing for 3 p.m. Thursday to consider next steps in the lawsuit.
“The district court correctly determined that the combination of the State’s strict enforcement of the ballot-access provisions and the Stay-at-Home Orders imposed a severe burden on the plaintiffs’ ballot access,” read the ruling in part.”...the State’s strict application of the ballot-access provisions is unconstitutional as applied here.
The ruling goes on to state: “The likelihood that the Plaintiffs and public will be harmed by a partial stay outweighs the chance that the State’s interest in protecting the efficacy of the ballot will be impacted.”