Civil Service System Lawsuit Moved to Federal Court

A lawsuit will not be heard in Michigan's Third Circuit Court.

Dearborn lawyer Morris Goodman, who is representing plaintiff Marjorie Powell in the case against the City of Dearborn, said Tuesday that the case has been moved to federal court due to the claims the suit makes that the ballot question violates the U.S. Constitution.

The case was originally set to be heard before Third Circuit Court Judge Brian Sullivan on Nov. 2.

The case concerns a ballot proposal to terminate the city's civil service system–a set of rules, regulations and governing commission that oversee the hiring, firing and promotions of city employees.

Powell, a former Civil Service Commission chair, filed the lawsuit Oct. 6 seeking to obtain a court-ordered injunction that would either remove the proposed charter amendment from November's ballot, or render the proposal useless, if it were to pass.

The court filings claim that the true purpose of the proposal is to oust both Powell and current Human Resources Director Valerie Murphy-Goodrich, as well as to make another suit filed by Powell disappear. That suit claims that she was unlawfully forced out of the commission for not taking her oath of office in a timely manner.

Powell's case therefore concludes that the ballot proposal is a Bill of Attainder "that has a punishing effect on a single person or group," which is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Dearborn city officials have maintained that the ballot language was approved in August by the attorney general's office, and therefore could not be changed. However, the suit could reverse the passage of Proposal 3.

Goodman has said that he doesn't think the Civil Service System question will pass, in which case the suit will die.

An u showed that 29 out of 36 readers who took the poll are not in support of the proposal.