This lawsuit may be nothing more than political advertising on the part of our Attorney General:

https://www.michigan.gov/ag/news/press-releases/2026/07/30/ag-nessel-files-lawsuit-against-nursing-home-operator-for-violating-medicaid-false-claim-act

https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=MCL-333-21720A

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/03/2025-21792/medicare-and-medicaid-programs-repeal-of-minimum-staffing-standards-for-long-term-care-facilities

• Ashley Healthcare Center and Riverside Healthcare Center in Gratiot County;
• Heritage Manor Nursing & Rehab Center, Northville Manor, and Pine Creek Manor Skilled Nursing & Rehab Center in Wayne County;
• Lakeside Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center and Regency Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Macomb County; and
• Oakland Manor and Oakridge Manor Nursing & Rehab Center in Oakland County.

At the low end of the PPACA individual market, Priority Health requested 11.1%.  At the high end of the PPACA individual market, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, Inc. requested 25.5%.  The average request of the ten insurers was 14.2%.

At the low end of the small group market, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Mutual Insurance Company requested 7.0%.  At the high end of the small group market, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, Inc. requested 14.8%.  The average request of the eight insurers was 9.6%.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland expects overall inflation in America to be 2.39% during the next 12 months and 2.44% over the next 24 months.

Michigan health care insurance premium inflation is now running four to six times the general rate of national inflation:

https://www.michigan.gov/difs/-/media/Project/Websites/difs/OIRF/EHB/PDFs/2027_Proposed_Rate_Changes.pdf

https://www.clevelandfed.org/-/media/files/webcharts/inflationexpectations/inflation-expectations.xlsx?sc_lang=en&hash=C27818913D96CEDD80E3136B9946CFA7

The DoE summary of their latest rules, published on September 29, 2025:

SUMMARY:

The Department of Education (Department) announces final priorities, requirements, and definitions under the School-Based Mental Health Services (SBMH) Program, Assistance Listing Number (ALN) 84.184H. We may use one or more of these priorities, requirements, and definitions for competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2025 and later years. These final priorities, requirements, and definitions are designed to target activities with the purpose of increasing the number of credentialed school-based mental health services providers, specifically school psychologists, in high-need local educational agencies (LEAs) available to provide mental health services to students. These priorities, requirements, and definitions replace the Notice of Final Priorities, Requirements, and Definitions published in the Federal Register on October 4, 2022 (87 FR 60092). However, those priorities, requirements, and definitions remain in effect for previous grant competitions in which the notices inviting applications (NIAs) were published before the Department finalized the proposed priorities, requirements, and definitions in this notice.

It is not yet clear why the full cabal of 22 Democratic AGs did not sign on to this suit.  Dissention in the ranks?

https://www.michigan.gov/ag/news/press-releases/2026/07/10/ag-nessel-joins-lawsuit-to-prevent-department-of-educations-cuts-to-school-mental-health-grants

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/09/29/2025-18900/school-based-mental-health-grant-program

AG Nessel Joins Lawsuit to Prevent Department of Education’s Cuts to School Mental Health Grants
By Danny Wimmer - July 10, 2026

LANSING – Today, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit (PDF) with 14 other attorneys general to prevent the U.S. Department of Education from unlawfully terminating congressionally approved school-based mental health grants. In defiance of a court order, the administration plans to terminate these grants at the end of July, which is projected to cost Michigan schools and universities more than $6 million.

“The federal government should always prioritize the well-being of our students,” said Attorney General Nessel. “Instead, it insists on abandoning schools to combat the mental health crisis alone. The White House is treating children’s lives as disposable by bypassing court orders and unlawfully terminating these grants, but we will do whatever it takes to protect our kids and secure the funds they were promised.”

In the wake of devastating school shootings, members of Congress from both parties came together to appropriate $1 billion to permanently bring 14,000 mental health professionals into U.S. schools most in need, especially in low-income and rural communities. The programs have been an incredible success. In their first year, the programs provided mental and behavioral health services to nearly 775,000 elementary and secondary students nationwide. Sampled projects showed real results: a 50% reduction in suicide risk at high-need schools, decreases in absenteeism and behavioral issues, and increases in positive student-staff engagement.

In April 2025, the department notified grantees in Michigan and the other coalition states that their grants would be discontinued for allegedly conflicting with the Trump administration's new priorities. The department later revealed the grants had been targeted for their perceived support for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

In July 2025, Attorney General Nessel joined the coalition in filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington against the department over the discontinuation of the grants. In December 2025, the coalition secured an order declaring the department’s discontinuations were unlawful and requiring it to make new continuation decisions. The court also issued a permanent injunction that prohibited the department from implementing the discontinuations “through any means.”

The department has admitted most of the grants should have been continued, but they have nonetheless engaged in an ongoing campaign to hinder, threaten, and ultimately try to eliminate the mental health grants in Michigan and the other coalition states. Although the department issued continuation awards through December 31, 2026, the department only provided funding for approximately seven months, making planning difficult because grantees do not know how much funding they will get for the fall. The department also threatened not to provide funding for the second half of the year and are making grantees jump through unnecessary hoops to access funds—diverting resources and staff from supporting student mental health to filling out superfluous paperwork.

The department claimed it planned to review the grants at the six-month mark and then make additional funding determinations. But instead, the department has targeted the grants protected by the original injunction and announced they plan to terminate the grants altogether at the end of July. By calling this a termination rather than a discontinuation, the administration seeks to circumvent the court’s order, which required them to follow the law with respect to these important mental health grants. Although Attorney General Nessel and the coalition continue to fight this attempt to circumvent the court’s order, they have filed this new lawsuit to prevent these planned terminations and cover any gaps that would threaten these critical grants.

The attorneys general allege that the Department of Education’s plan to terminate the mental health grants violate the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution. The attorneys general have moved for a preliminary injunction to prevent the grants from being terminated.

Joining Attorney General Nessel in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin.

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/investigations/2026/06/02/agency-handling-protections-for-michigans-mental-health-patients-under-scrutiny/

https://www.house.mi.gov/Document/?DocumentId=69074&DocumentType=CommitteeMeetingMinutes

https://audgen.michigan.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/rs391012024-923483.pdf

https://www.senatormichaelwebber.com/webber-orr-testimony-fails-to-demonstrate-meaningful-change/

Agency handling protections for Michigan’s mental health patients under scrutiny
Office of Recipient Rights director testifies before lawmakers

• Nearly 30% of complaints alleging abuse, neglect, serious injury, or death, were not retrieved or acted on until 2 to 12 days after being filed. The state’s supposed to respond within 24 hours.
• More than 10% of complaints lacked a date stamp, meaning it was impossible to tell if the state’s actions were timely.

• Staff has been trained to date stamp documents when they receive them.
• The Office of Recipient Rights currently have 25 staff members and are looking to get funding to hire 2 more.
• They currently have a goal of transitioning their record-keeping to an electronic system.

https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/local/nurses-aide-convicted-1987-alpine-manor-nursing-home-murders-seeks-clemency-claims-innocence/69-52534ede-8663-41a0-8b48-8c1dd6fcd907

Nurses aide convicted in 1987 Alpine Manor nursing home murders seeks clemency, claims innocence
Convicted of 5 murders nearly 40 years ago, Gwen Graham is seeking clemency, arguing the murders never even happened and the trial was tainted by anti-LGBTQ+ bias.
By Brielle Meyer - May 18, 2026

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Gwen Graham, convicted of five first-degree murders in the deaths of elderly patients at Alpine Manor Nursing Home in Walker nearly 40 years ago, is asking Michigan's governor for clemency, arguing he never committed the crimes at all.

Graham is currently serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole. At the time of the crimes and trial, Graham identified as a woman and went by the name Gwendolyn. He now lives as a transgender man.

The Michigan Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School filed the 642-page petition on Graham's behalf in March 2025. WZZM 13 obtained the petition from Graham's attorney, who confirmed its filing.

Graham, now 62, has been incarcerated at Huron Valley Women's Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti since his 1989 conviction on five counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy.

In 1987, Graham and his then-girlfriend, Catherine Wood, were nurses' aides at Alpine Manor Nursing Home in Walker. Five elderly patients, Mae Mason, 79, Edith Cook, 98, Marguerite Chambers, 60, Myrtle Luce, 95, and Belle Burkhard, 74, died between January and April of that year. All were initially ruled to have died of natural causes.

The investigation began more than a year later, when Wood's estranged husband contacted Walker police after Wood told him she and Graham had been smothering patients. Wood eventually entered into a plea agreement, pleading to second-degree murder in exchange for her cooperation and testimony against Graham. She was sentenced to 20 to 40 years.

Graham was convicted largely on the basis of Wood's testimony. Wood testified that Graham suffocated the patients while she acted as a lookout. Graham has maintained his innocence since his arrest.

13 ON YOUR SIDE covered Wood's lengthy parole battle. After being denied parole eight times, Wood was granted parole in 2018. Following a legal challenge by victims' families and a ruling by Kent County Circuit Court Judge J. Joseph Rossi, Wood was released in January 2020 and relocated to South Carolina.

The clemency petition, submitted by the Michigan Innocence Clinic, makes several central allegations and arguments for why Graham's conviction should be overturned and clemency granted:

• No physical evidence. The clinic argues that no physical or forensic evidence has ever supported the conclusion that any murder took place at Alpine Manor. The five women were elderly, seriously ill, and their deaths were not considered suspicious at the time. According to the petition, the nursing home's own medical director testified at trial that there was no unusual uptick in deaths during the period in question.
• Wood's story was fabricated and inconsistent. The petition argues the entire case rests on Wood's account, an account that changed repeatedly during the investigation. At various points, Wood told investigators she alone killed patients, that they killed together, that Graham alone was responsible, and that the total number of victims ranged from five to eight. The petition also argues Wood had a documented pattern of manipulation and fabricating stories, and that coworkers who heard her early claims believed she was playing one of her typical "mind games."
• Dark humor was not a confession. A significant portion of the petition addresses the workplace jokes that became central to the prosecution's case. Graham, Wood and other Alpine Manor staff occasionally made dark, morbid jokes about patient deaths, including jokes inspired by a 1980 horror movie called Motel Hell. The petition argues this kind of gallows humor is well-documented and common in caregiving professions, and does not constitute evidence of criminal behavior.
• Anti-LGBTQ+ bias infected the trial. The petition argues that the 1989 trial took place against a backdrop of rampant homophobia in Michigan and that prosecutors exploited Graham and Wood's relationship to shock the jury in lieu of presenting substantive evidence. Witness after witness was questioned extensively about their sexual relationships with Graham, testimony the clinic argues was irrelevant to murder and served only to inflame prejudice. The petition also argues that media coverage of the case at the time repeatedly centered on Graham and Wood's identity as lesbians in headlines and story framing.
• Graham's record in prison. The petition notes that over 36 years of incarceration, Graham has fewer than one disciplinary write-up per year on average. He tutored fellow prisoners pursuing their GEDs, participated in substance abuse treatment programs and took part in the Prison Creative Arts Project as recently as 2023. The petition also alleges Graham was sexually assaulted by prison staff at Scott Correctional Facility and was a member of a class of plaintiffs in a 1996 lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Corrections over sexual harassment and assault by officers.

These announcements appear frequently in recent appropriation committee hearing agendas.

The process may soon become even more rigorous.

CapCon Weekly Editorial Dispatch email:

Scott McClallen    |    May 22, 2026

Big changes may be coming to Lansing’s earmark process. 

On May 12, the Michigan Court of Claims sided with the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, granting a preliminary injunction that blocks legislators from approving district spending requests unless they clear a constitutionally required two-thirds supermajority in each chamber.

The case stems from a lawsuit filed in May 2025 against the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, targeting grants awarded to private organizations at the behest of individual lawmakers. Among the projects called out: a $1.5 million grant for Jimmy John's Field in Utica and $1 million for Jackson Field in Lansing.

The lawsuit might stop lawmakers from lobbing million-dollar softballs to politically connected and favored private entities, such as baseball stadiums whose owners could easily pay the bills. 

The Michigan Constitution requires a two-thirds supermajority vote before taxpayer dollars flow to private entities. Critics say the earmark process has long bypassed that threshold — bankrolling everything from curling centers and cricket fields to ballet companies and auto shows.

The court carved out exemptions for grants with statewide benefit, such as highway funding and major cultural institutions, though it stopped short of defining those institutions clearly.

James Hohman, the Mackinac Center's fiscal policy director, has argued that if a grant serves the public interest, lawmakers should establish formal criteria and a competitive process — not simply hand money to projects of their own choosing.

Payments on the challenged grants are frozen while the case proceeds toward a final ruling on the merits.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2026/05/13/planned-parenthood-clinics-state-funding/90066532007/

Planned Parenthood: Michigan clinics will close if state doesn't provide $5M
Without a $5 million allocation from the state, Planned Parenthood says it will have to close further locations in Michigan.
By Arpan Lobo - May 13, 2026

Planned Parenthood of Michigan says it will have to close more abortion clinics in the state if it does not receive a one-time, $5 million allocation from the state. The organization is calling on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to take action, although budgetary process constraints could make the request difficult to fulfill.

During a media call Wednesday, May 13, the organization's leaders said cuts to federal funding for abortion services and reproductive health care under President Donald Trump's administration threaten clinics in Michigan. Without a one-time allocation of $5 million from the state, the organization will have to close additional locations in Michigan, Paula Thornton Greear, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Michigan, said in a letter to Whitmer sent Wednesday.

It's not immediately clear what funding pool Whitmer could allocate funds to Planned Parenthood from. Typically, state dollars are earmarked for spending through the budget process, when the governor and each chamber of the Michigan Legislature hash out a spending plan. Any supplemental spending would also have to go through the Legislature, where Democrats control the Senate and Republicans control the House. It's not likely the House would support state funding for Planned Parenthood.

"Gov. Whitmer is one of the country's greatest champions for reproductive freedom. Under the Michigan Constitution, the Legislature has the responsibility to allocate state funds," Stacey LaRouche, Whitmer's press secretary, told the Detroit Free Press over email Wednesday. "We would encourage any organization or individual to work with the Legislature on their budget asks."

Thornton Greear said other governors have maneuvered one-time funding to their Planned Parenthood affiliates, noting a $4 million earmark for Planned Parenthood in Illinois authorized by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

"We urge the governor to pursue every pathway," Thornton Greear said, calling for "urgency and creativity."

"The specific mechanism matters less than the outcome at this point."

Currently, Planned Parenthood has 10 health centers in Michigan where patients can receive reproductive healthcare, including medication and in-clinic abortions. The group closed health centers in Jackson, Marquette and Petoskey and consolidated its two Ann Arbor locations last year, also citing cuts in federal funding.

Grant funding through the federal Title X program has undergone a shift since Trump returned to office for a second, non-consecutive term early last year. Title X provides federal funding for family planning for low-income and uninsured individuals, according to KFF, and hundreds of abortion providers throughout the country rely on the funding.

In March, Democrats in Congress warned U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in a letter that providers would face a funding cliff under changes to grant guidelines made by the department, NPR reported.

Thornton Greear said Wednesday a $5 million allocation from the state would cover services through October, when the next round of Title X funding is expected. But Planned Parenthood of Michigan cannot afford to hang on that long, and Michiganders would lose access to reproductive care without state relief, she said.

"Without state action, we will be forced to make decisions about our footprint that cannot be undone," Thornton Greear told reporters.

https://hoodline.com/2026/04/msu-shakes-up-med-schools-in-big-bet-on-detroit-grand-rapids/

MSU Shakes Up Med Schools in Big Bet on Detroit, Grand Rapids
By Marcus Taylor - April 3, 2026

Michigan State University is pulling its two medical schools under one leadership roof and doubling down on Grand Rapids and Detroit as its main research and clinical hubs. The overhaul is meant to better align the MD and DO degree tracks, centralize administration, and widen access to clinical rotations and translational research sites across Michigan. University leaders say the shift is about becoming a stronger partner to large health systems and a tougher contender for grants and private investment.

As reported by Crain's Detroit Business, the change folds the College of Human Medicine and the College of Osteopathic Medicine into a more coordinated structure that highlights MSU's footprint in the state's two biggest cities. Crain's describes the move as both an administrative consolidation and a strategic wager on Detroit and Grand Rapids as growth engines, with centralized back-office work paired with an expansion of clinical sites and research partnerships.

MSU is branding the shift under its "One Team, One Health" strategy, which explores a "One College of Medicine, Two degree pathways" model that keeps MD and DO identities intact while syncing curriculum oversight, research priorities, and institutional strategy, according to MSU. The planning materials outline task forces on accreditation, college structure, and research that will recommend a path forward, and MSU says town halls and community conversations will continue as the work moves along.

Anchors in Grand Rapids and Detroit

On the west side, Grand Rapids remains the key anchor. The College of Human Medicine is based at the Secchia Center on the Medical Mile, which MSU touts as a hub for preclinical education, simulation, and growing research activity, according to MSU College of Human Medicine. In Detroit, MSU's clinical integration has been speeding up through a multi-year partnership with Henry Ford Health that features shared services, an electronic health record migration, and plans for a Detroit research center, according to a Henry Ford Health press release. Together, the two hubs give MSU a stronger foothold in both of Michigan's largest health care markets.

Why Students, Hospital Partners and Patients Should Care

University officials say the unified approach could open up more clinical rotation slots for students and smooth out recruitment pipelines for hospitals, a core part of MSU's broader strategic pitch highlighted by MSUToday. Hospital systems could see tighter clinical networks and shared hiring pipelines, while researchers are eyeing a combined college as a way to boost MSU's odds for federal grants and philanthropic funding. At the same time, hospital leaders, faculty, and students are waiting to see how governance, budgets, and the split of clinical revenue and overhead are sorted out.

Accreditation and governance are still unresolved. The university has created an accreditation task force and promised more analysis before landing on a final structure, according to MSU. Any change to how the MD and DO programs are run will need careful review from accrediting bodies and campus stakeholders, and MSU has signaled there will be more community conversations in the months ahead.

For now, MSU is stressing that both degree pathways will remain in place and that the goal is to amplify its statewide presence, not close campuses. The finer points, including timelines, projected savings, and what all of this means for day-to-day clinical placements, are expected to surface as task forces report back and more town halls take place.

https://record.umich.edu/articles/four-projects-receive-nearly-4-5m-in-lsa-research-initiative/

Measuring, Modeling, and Mapping Microplastics in the Atmosphere of Michigan
The harmful effects of microplastics in water and on land have been the topic of many scholars’ research in recent years, but little is known about its impact in the air.

This team will research how microplastics pollution in the atmosphere has impacted residents in Michigan, and how racial, economic, and geographic disparities have played a role in exposure levels. The research will help inform how to better address this issue and promote environmental justice.

Project team: Anne McNeil, Andrew Ault, Ambuj Tewari, Paul Zimmerman, Allison Steiner and Mary Starr

Total award: $2 million

More at Michigan Advance:

https://michiganadvance.com/2026/03/29/scientists-may-be-overestimating-microplastics-in-the-environment-and-the-culprit-is-lab-gloves/

Scientists may be overestimating microplastics in the environment – and the culprit is lab gloves
By Anne McNeil, University of Michigan and Madeline Clough, University of Michigan - March 29, 2026

It seems like every day a new study finds tiny plastic particles called microplastics where they should not be: in our bodies and our food, water and air.

Yet finding and identifying microplastics is extremely challenging, especially given their small size. One microplastic can range from as large as a ladybug to as small as an eighth of a red blood cell.

In addition, it can be hard for researchers to avoid unintentionally contaminating their samples, because these plastics are practically everywhere. As a result, much of this research may be overestimating the number of microplastics.

In a new study published in March 2026, our team found that, even when following established protocols, using certain methods to measure environmental microplastics can potentially contaminate the results.

Microplastics are tiny plastics shed from plastic waste. They are found in the environment, waterways and even the human body.

The study

We are chemists at the University of Michigan working in a collaborative team. We set out to understand how many microplastics Michiganders were inhaling when outside, and whether that depended on where they lived.

When preparing our samples, we followed all the standard protocols while conducting our research – we avoided plastic use in the lab, wore nonplastic clothing and even used a specialized chamber to reduce potential contamination from the laboratory air.

Despite these precautions, we found plastic counts in the air that were over 1,000 times greater than previous reports. We knew these numbers didn’t seem right, so what happened?

The culprit: Lab gloves

After a long path to pinpointing the contamination source, we found that laboratory gloves, which the scientific community recommends using as a best practice, can transfer particles to the surface of our samples – in this case, small metal sheets used to collect material depositing from the air. Moreover, the particles led to an overestimation of microplastic abundance in our study.

Here’s how: The particles, which we identified as stearate salts, are used to help the gloves cleanly release from their mold during the manufacturing process. When gloves are used to handle laboratory equipment, the particles are transferred to anything they touch. Stearate salts are similar to soap molecules – if you eat a lot of them, they’re probably not good for you, but they’re not harmful in the environment in the same way that microplastics are.

While not microplastics themselves, stearate salts are structurally similar to polyethylene, the type of plastic most often found in the environment. This structural similarity makes it difficult to distinguish them using the most common tools scientists use to determine whether a particle is plastic.

Researchers use vibrational spectroscopy to identify microplastics, which entails measuring how the particle interacts with light to produce what scientists call a chemical fingerprint.

Because polyethylene and stearate salts have very similar structures, they also interact with light in a similar way.

As a result, at least some of the time, the particles from gloves are incorrectly identified as microplastics. As more researchers rely on automated methods to speed up their analyses, glove residue may be increasingly mistaken for microplastics, leading to higher reports of microplastics in the environment than in reality.

How widespread is this contamination?

To investigate how prevalent this contamination might be, we looked at different glove types. We mimicked the touch between seven types of gloves while handling laboratory equipment and counted the number of microplastics we would incorrectly attribute to the environment if we followed the most common approaches.

We found that gloves can contribute over 7,000 particles per square millimeter that are misidentified as microplastics. This finding means that researchers could be unknowingly overestimating microplastic abundance in the environment when handling their samples with gloves.

Even more concerning, we found that the particles were largely less than 5 um in size. Microplastics in this size range have larger impacts on human and ecosystem health because they can more easily enter cells. By inflating microplastic counts in this size range, using laboratory gloves may jeopardize the studies that inform future policies and regulations.

Moving forward

To avoid contamination, we suggest scientists avoid glove use while conducting microplastic research. If that is not possible – for example, with biological samples where the researchers must wear gloves to protect themselves – we recommend a glove made without stearates, such as those designed for electronics manufacturing. To recover older, potentially contaminated datasets, we have developed methods to help differentiate the chemical fingerprints.

Science is an iterative process. New areas of research, including environmental microplastics, introduce new challenges to the scientific community. In addressing these new challenges, we will encounter setbacks, such as unforeseen contamination.

While we had to discard our initial dataset, we expect the lessons we learned about glove contamination to reach other scientists. In addition, we plan to continue our research on Michigan’s atmospheric microplastic contamination – but this time without gloves.

It’s important to note that even if the microplastic abundance in the environment is lower than researchers originally thought, any amount of microplastics can be troublesome, given their negative effects on human health and ecosystems.

Anne McNeil is a Professor of Chemistry and Macromolecular Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. Madeline Clough is a Ph.D. Candidate in Chemistry at the University of Michigan.

This lawsuit, Case 1:26-cv-00390, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan on February 6th.  The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids.  An update from Michigan Advance:

https://michiganadvance.com/briefs/deadline-to-respond-extended-in-right-to-life-of-michigan-lawsuit-challenging-state-employment-law/

Deadline to respond extended in Right to Life of Michigan lawsuit challenging state employment law
By Katherine Dailey - March 11, 2026

A lawsuit filed by Right to Life of Michigan and the Pregnancy Resource Center in Grand Rapids against Attorney General Dana Nessel, along with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and members of the Civil Rights Commission, continues to develop in court as the deadline for Nessel and the other defendants to respond has been extended to the end of March.

The lawsuit, which alleges that Michigan’s employment law violates the First Amendment protections of the two plaintiff organizations by requiring them to recruit and hire candidates with beliefs on abortion that do not align with the groups, as well as requiring them to cover abortion care in employee pregnancy benefits plans, was filed on Feb. 6 in federal district court.

Right to Life of Michigan and the Pregnancy Resource Center, or PRC, argue that, by continuing to require that their employees agree with their respective anti-abortion messages, they are currently in violation of Michigan’s employment law, putting them at risk of losing licenses or paying fines that they should not be at risk for.

“The First Amendment protects Right to Life’s and PRC’s First Amendment freedoms to join with others to further a common cause and to refrain from participating in activities that contradict their beliefs. Michigan’s law infringes on these bedrock freedoms,” the court filing reads.

The groups filed for a preliminary injunction to prevent any enforcement of those employment laws against the two groups “from adopting and following a policy, pattern, or practice of only recruiting, hiring, employing, and retaining employees who agree with, abide by, and live consistent with its position on abortion,” according to the motion.

The defendants had initially faced a March 4 deadline to respond to the complaint. However, on Feb. 26, Judge Robert J. Jonker, who is handling the case in the Western District of Michigan, granted an order to extend that deadline until March 27. The plaintiffs will then have another four weeks to respond themselves.

This is not the only lawsuit filed by Right to Life of Michigan against the current administration — the group is currently appealing the decision from a judge to dismiss a suit filed in 2023 seeking to overturn the state’s Proposal 3, a ballot initiative in 2022 that enshrined reproductive freedoms, including the right to an abortion, in the Michigan Constitution.