We've got a couple of hometown boys making news these days; Midland has the House Ways and Means Chairman and the Michigan AG as Dow High school-buddies (Dow High is my Midland High's arch-rival; since it is on the upscale side of Midland, we would call them the Dough-boys). AG Bill Schuette had what is now Dave Camp's House seat until a failed run for the US Senate; Camp got the seat and never gave it back. After spending a couple decades in semi-limbo as a state senator and appeals-court judge, he's in the statewide limelight as AG.
The news item that goe Schuette on the laptop is a state anti-affirmative-action law that got shot down by an en-banc 6th circuit. The vote was 8-7, so this is a very narrow decision that is bound to head to the Supreme Court; Schuette is already pledging to make an appeal.
It's interesting that a law that makes it illegal to discriminate for under-represented demographic groups is discriminatory, but that's what a majority of the 6th Circuit has ruled. Paging Anthony Kennedy; it's your call, in all likelihood, since this smells like a 5-4 split either way.
Schuette will then get his day in the sun pleading Michigan's case; as AG, he'd likely be first in line for the governor's nomination in 2018 when Gov. Tough Nerd gets term-limited, and such gigs only help build gravitas for a run for the big chair.
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