CHICAGO -- Michigan Wednesday defended the state's controversial emergency management law in federal court from a lawsuit seeking to overturn it as unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh, who held a two-hour hearing on the matter Wednesday, said he would issue a written decision later on a request from state Attorney General Bill Schuette asking the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
The challenge was filed last year, soon after the new law went into effect. The act was crafted and signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in late 2012 after voters had overturned an earlier version in November 2012.
Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr is exempt from the lawsuit while the city is in bankruptcy.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued the law violates federal collective bargaining rights, due process and the voting rights of minorities, as most of the governments under state control have large African-American populations.
The laws is a "blatant assault on democratic and constitutional rights," one attorney said, according to local reports.
The state argued that the parties bringing the lawsuit failed to prove their allegations.
"These communities are on the brink of collapse, and there's a way to save them," Assistant Attorney General Michael Murphy told the judge. "The only color we're dealing with here is green -- it's cash."
Michigan controls Detroit, Allen Park, Flint, Hamtramck, Ecorse, Inkster, Benton Harbor, River Rouge, Pontiac, the Detroit Public Schools, and the Muskegon Heights and Highland Park school districts.
