Michigan is facing a lawsuit whose claimants are seeking information about governor Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order related to the coronavirus for residents of the state’s nursing home.
Whitmer could soon find himself under scrutiny similar to that faced by a Democratic colleague, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, say the Michigan men who are suing Whitmer.
Plaintiffs Steve Delie and Charlie LeDuff outlined the purpose of their lawsuit in an article published Friday by USA Today. Delie is an employee of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy think tank, while LeDuff is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
“There should be no need for a judicial process to obtain these critical data,” wrote the pair. “Governor Whitmer made the same policy choice as Governor Cuomo, forcing contagious elderly people to approach other clinically vulnerable people. In fact, her policy, a similar version of which is still in effect today, has gone even further, forcing some non-elderly patients in nursing homes, including a 20-year-old girl. Michigan citizens deserve to know why she did this and whether our governor is telling the truth about the consequences. “
“Governor Whitmer made the same policy choice as Governor Cuomo, forcing contagious elderly citizens to approach other clinically vulnerable people.”
The writers say Whitmer issued his executive order on April 15, 2020, just a few weeks after Cuomo issued a similar order in New York on March 25, 2020.
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They continue to watch recent disclosures about the Cuomo administration’s alleged underreporting of deaths in New York nursing home patients while the coronavirus has spread. The number of patients in New York was underreported by more than 40%, while deaths in the state were underreported by more than 75%, they note, citing reports from the Associated Press.
Delie and LeDuff argue that the New York public had a right to know accurate information about what was happening to the patients at the nursing home, but did not receive the data until after a five-month legal struggle.
Whitmer’s only legal exemption
They then note that, under Michigan law, Whitmer has the advantage of being legally exempt from Freedom of Information laws and is the only one of the nation’s 50 governors to have such an exemption.
“Thanks to this exemption, the governor [Whitmer] has no obligation to produce any record, despite making decisions that affect the lives of each Michigander “, write the authors.
“The governor [Whitmer] is under no obligation to produce any records, despite making decisions that affect the lives of all Michigander. “
They claim that Whitmer used the shield provided by the exemption to “act with impunity” – and was not required to provide the data on which she based her coronavirus policy decisions.
“This is unacceptable,” write Delie and LeDuff.
Earlier this month, Michigan Attorney General Danna Nessel, a Democrat, declined a request by state Republicans to investigate actions related to Whitmer’s nursing home, saying that an investigation was not necessary “at this time”.
“I appreciate that you and your colleagues have political differences with Governor Whitmer’s response to COVID-19,” wrote Nessel in a letter dated March 15. “But an investigation by my office is not the mechanism to resolve these differences.”
Republicans have condemned the Michigan governor for allowing residents of nursing homes recovering from the virus to return to their homes or gain hospitalization, claiming that the move put other residents at risk.
Whitmer created 21 centers in existing nursing homes that should have space for isolation and special equipment for groups of seniors who were discharged from the hospital, Detroit News reported.
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But state Republicans wanted separate isolation units designed for elderly populations recovering from COVID-19 in order to prevent other nursing home residents from contracting the virus.
Last week, a New York City nursing home director told Fox News that he considered Cuomo’s nursing home orders “ridiculous” and complained to state health officials, saying, “We can’t do that.”
Cuomo is facing an investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, NY, regarding his nursing home policies, The New York Times reported on Friday.
Fox News’s Caitlin McFall and Greg Norman contributed to this story.