LANSING, MI (AP)— Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says the state's redistricting commission should not have held a private meeting to discuss memos related to racially polarized voting and the federal Voting Rights Act’s requirement that people be able to elect minority candidates.
The panel called the controversial closed session with its lawyer October 27th, after Detroit residents criticized the members for drawing no majority-Black districts. Nessel, in a legal opinion Monday, said the commission presumably was conducting business that should've been done in an open meeting.
The panel's spokesman says the commission respects her opinion and will discuss it transparently at the next meeting.
State Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Waucedah Township, issued the following statement Tuesday on Attorney General Dana Nessel’s legal opinion that the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) closed session held Oct. 27, 2021, should have been an open meeting:
“I am pleased with the legal assessment that the MICRC’s Oct. 27 meeting should have been open, according to the state constitution. I am also grateful that legal clarity has been given regarding an issue that on its face seemed clear to most observers. I look forward to the relevant documents from the meeting being made public and, more importantly, that a mistake like this does not happen again.”
McBroom, who serves as chairman of the Senate Oversight Committee, formally asked Nessel to provide a legal opinion on whether the commission’s closed meeting violated Article 4, Section 6 of the Michigan Constitution, which says the commission’s meetings shall be open.
