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Attorney General Bill Schuette (File photo)
The Michigan Civil Rights Commission to Attorney General Bill Schuette: Forget your opinion.
The commission decided at a meeting in Traverse City to ignore a recent legal opinion from Schuette that finds state law does not protect lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders from discrimination, The Detroit News reports.
Monday's decision paves the way for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights to continue investigating sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination complaints.
Beth LeBlanc reports:
Schuette said the panel’s take on the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act “conflicts what the original intent of the Legislature as expressed in plain language" and his opinion is binding on state government.
But the commission decided to ignore Schuette. The commission is an “independent, constitutionally created and establish body" and the department will continue to follow its direction, Department of Civil Rights Director Agustin V. Arbulu said in a statement.
“The commission is not bound by the opinion of the attorney general,” Arbulu said. “The only recourse is for the courts to determine if issuing the interpretive statement was within the scope of the commission’s authority, and that is the appropriate venue for resolving this issue.”
