Conyers Calls For Review Of Emergency Manager Law

From CBS Detroit

LANSING (WWJ) – Michigan Congressman John Conyers is asking the Justice Department and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review and possibly challenge the constitutionality of the new Emergency Manager law.

Conyers saif he has grave concerns about the Emergency Manager law because, among other things, it allows the termination of union contracts.

“As enacted, this law allows the Governor, after following a specified review process, to take over a local government or school district by appointing a manager to assume the authority and responsibility of locally elected officials. It includes the power to terminate collective bargaining agreements and contracts and even to dissolve outright a unit of government,” wrote Conyers in a letter to Holder.

Conyers says the U.S. Constitution says, in part, no state shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts.

In the next step to a possible move to an Emergency Manager in Detroit, Governor Rick Snyder is expected to announce a financial review team to look at the city’s finances. Sources tell WWJ Newsradio 950′s Vickie Thomas the governor will initiate the review as early as Friday. (More on this, here).