Dictate this

Recent events have prompted the team here at News Hits to dip into our memory banks in an attempt to extract some of the lessons learned long ago in our high school civics classes.

It has been a while since we studied the basic principles of democracy, and the genius of those founding fathers who devised a system of government intended to protect us from the kind of tyranny that sparked a revolution.

Now, it may be that we are mistaken, because it has been many a year since we sat in a classroom and pretended to listen, but it seems to us that one of the key components in the framework that made our system so strong is something called "checks and balances."

In fact, we were close to being convinced that we might be mistaken. Maybe checks and balances — different branches of government, each serving a different role, all designed to keep a balance of power in place so that no single force could come to dominate us — weren't really all that important.

After all, that was the message inherent in the emergency manager legislation proposed by Gov. Rick Snyder and given speedy approval by the Republican-dominated Legislature. Our thinking went something like, "Geez, if a guy as rich and successful and nerdy as Snyder doesn't think that checks and balances are all that important, maybe our memory is more impaired than we'd like to believe, and what we thought was a basic, undeniable fact turned out to be a misconception."

It's possible that we slept through the part of class where the teacher said, "Checks and balances are a fundamental part of our government — except when things get tough. Then it is all right to set up mini-dictatorships. Because the bottom line is that, as much as we like to trumpet the virtues of democracy, deep down most of us are just too stupid to govern ourselves."

Yeah, we told ourselves. Maybe we did miss that part — just like we missed the part of Snyder's gubernatorial campaign where he promised voters that one of his first major acts after taking office would be to make it infinitely easier for people to completely lose control of their local governments.

But, as it turns out, it looks like the nerd is the one who wasn't paying close attention in civics class.

At least that's what a group of very good lawyers are saying, and an untold number of really pissed-off citizens are proclaiming.

The attorneys — a group Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson referred to as a legal "dream team" — filed a lawsuit in Ingham County Circuit Court last week asserting that Snyder's emergency manager law violates basic rights guaranteed by our state's constitution.

Specifically, the suit claims that the law "effectively establishes a new form of government" in Michigan by allowing "cities, villages, townships and other forms of municipal corporations to be ruled by one unelected official and that this official's orders, appointments, expenditures and other decisions are not reviewable by local officials or local elected officials or voters."

> Email Curt Guyette