A judge has overturned a state law that scrapped Oakland County’s new commission map and gave Republican elected officials the power to draw a new one.
The challenge was filed by Democrats who say the law was simply a GOP power grab.
The ruling is the latest chapter in a struggle for political power in the former Republican bastion that’s now a battleground county.
Republicans failed to overturn in court an Oakland County Commission district map designed by a redistricting panel dominated by Democrats. So, Republicans in the Legislature – on party-line votes -- muscled through a bill that reduced the size of the county commission and shifted authority for drawing new district lines to the commission.
It has a Republican majority. Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed the law, which applied only to Oakland County.
Ingham County Circuit Judge William Collette ruled the law violates the Michigan Constitution and the governor and the Legislature illegally interfered in a local political question.
The state could appeal the ruling.
