TUNE OUT

... That's what the Michigan Supreme Court did to justice.  Somehow they managed to bollix a simple decision to deny an interlocutory leave to appeal by the City of Grand Rapids, Pioneer Inc., Dykema Excavators, and the other defendants in the Toxic Towers (a.k.a. The Boardwalk) illegal hazardous waste dumping lawsuit (here and here for details) we filed against in them -- in 2002!  Four years later and the case still hasn't even gotten into discovery.  And now four of the seven justices of the state's high court have imposed even further delay by handing our case back down to the Michigan Court of Appeals, instead of the trial court, to mull over the issue of our standing to bring the lawsuit -- which has been decided three times now in our favor!

I should give credit where it's due.  Justice Elizabeth Weaver penned a dissent strongly rebuking the majority's decision to send the case to the Court of Appeals instead of simply denying the leave and returning the case to the trial court so that discovery could proceed.  Two of her colleagues also voted to deny the leave.  So the high court was split down the middle.  Small comfort.  Justice delayed is justice denied, and the bad guys once again avoid facing the videotape, photographic, and forensic evidence in open court that shows that they faked worker affidavits and soil tests to obstruct the MDEQ's original investigation of the complaints about their illegal dumping of toxic soil at the Monroe Avenue Water Filtration Plant (now the DeVries' Clear Water Plaza, subsidized to the tune of $6.6 million of your state tax dollars) and other locations northeast of Grand Rapids.

Our lawsuit is a victim of the Supreme Court's power politics.  The majority has tried to gut the Michigan Legislature's creation of statutes that vest ordinary citizens with the power to enforce violations of environmental laws in local courts.  They believe that the Legislature poached on their turf to decide who has standing to bring a lawsuit, and so have made rulings to alter the interpretation of the plain language written by the Legislature to empower all citizens to restrict it to those citizens who clear certain legal hurdles.  So much for the high court's deference to the people's elected representatives.

Fortunately, the Michigan Court of Appeals has already twice ruled we have standing to bring the lawsuit, so they will no doubt do so again.  (On top of that, the local trial court also ruled in our favor applying the stricter standard for standing that the Supreme Court recently imposed.)  So the battle isn't over to hold the Boardwalk polluters responsible for dumping toxic concentrations of lead, mercury, arsenic, and a couple dozen other hazardous substances in our neighborhoods.  Keep your fingers crossed for us.