The office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel cited a surprising precedent in a recent legal filing to the U.S. Department of Education: this year’s Supreme Court decision in the case Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which struck down judicial deference to administrative agencies.

“Loper casts a long shadow on all of the precedents cited by [the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights] in its brief and removes any deference this Tribunal should afford to OCR’s interpretation of Section 504,” the attorney general’s Health, Education & Family Services Division wrote in an Aug. 30 reply brief.

The federal agency accuses Michigan’s Department of Education of denying specialized services to students with visual, audible, and other disabilities during the COVID lockdown, an action that caused “exacerbated and contributed to the harm of students with disabilities,” according to the feds. 

Michigan’s Department of Education is seeking dismissal of the federal claims from an administrative law judge. The Loper Bright citation by the attorney general’s office is notable as that ruling, which overturned a precedent requiring courts to defer to administrative agencies on a wide range of questions, provoked widespread condemnation from national Democrats. 

According to the Office of Civil Rights, the Michigan Department of Education violated Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which protects individuals with disabilities from discrimination.

The federal agency said multiple parents of Michigan children with disabilities told the MDE that their students were being denied services they should have received under federal law.

One parent told the department by email that in spring 2020 the school district was “not able to provide any speech services other than emailed handouts.” The district “offer[ed] nothing over the summer so that kids with (individualized education programs)‚ will not obtain specialized help for about 6 months,” the parent said.

School officials were “saying they are unable to accommodate (my daughter’s individualized education program) if she is in virtual learning,” another parent told the state. “This is all against what she has in her IEP, and the school is saying they can’t accommodate the IEP,” the parent continued.

The federal complaint seeks compensatory services to repair educational deficits for about 207,000 children with disabilities, said Michigan special education advocate Marcie Lipsitt.

Lipsitt has three open complaints filed with federal officials against the state education department, filed on behalf of disabled children.

“Some of them have feeding tubes, are nonverbal, have vision and hearing impairments, have mobility impairments, and they couldn’t access a computer during that school closure,” Lipsitt said in a phone interview with Michigan Capitol Confidential.

Federal and state officials disagree on several claims. The state education department argued in its Aug. 30 motion that the federal civil rights agency lacks jurisdiction to enforce the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It cannot, the state continued, hold Michigan liable for actions taken by local school districts.

The state education agency denied any wrongdoing, claiming that federal officials engaged in “legal gymnastics” in the complaint.

The state education agency referred CapCon to its court filings when asked for a comment.

“Due to the ongoing proceeding, the Michigan Department of Education has nothing more to add to the detailed documents that we filed relative to OCR’s allegations,” said Bob Wheaton, who directs the department’s Office of Public and Governmental Affairs. “We remain strongly committed to providing equal access to educational opportunities to all students in Michigan – including students with disabilities.”

Advocacy groups have raised concerns with the state education department since 2020 and have received no further communication, Heather Eckner, director of statewide education for the Autism Alliance of Michigan, told CapCon in an email.

“The response of the Michigan Department of Education to the OCR investigation findings is very concerning. We've really not seen situations where a state education agency (SEA) has so willingly and so defiantly flouted the enforcement role of OCR in ensuring the rights of students with disabilities are protected,” Eckner wrote.

Michigan’s outcomes for students with disabilities are dismally poor and among the worst nationwide when accounting for on-time graduation rates and other factors, Eckner wrote.

“There is a pattern and practice of under-serving students with disabilities in Michigan in which the MDE is complicit” because of its role in supervising the enforcement of federal education law, Eckner wrote.

A Michigan lawmaker is aiming to ban the sale of lab-grown meats statewide.

Rep. Jim DeSana, R-Carleton, introduced House Bill 5879 in June. The bill is now before the House Agriculture Committee.

“This is about protecting our ranchers and about protecting the integrity of our food supply,” DeSana said. “This is also about protecting your right to provide food for yourself and your family.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the sale of what it called “cell-cultivated meat” last year.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation to ban lab-grown meat in May, becoming the first governor to do so.

DeSana’s bill in the Michigan Legislature defines “cultivated meat” as “a meat or meat product that was produced from cultured animal tissue produced from in vitro animal cell cultures outside of the animal from which the cells were derived.”

The bill doesn’t address consumer health or safety concerns but seeks to remove consumer choice, Shoshana Weissmann, R Street's digital media director, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email.

“In Florida, Gov. DeSantis didn’t even pretend his actions were about anything but pure industry protectionism,” Weissmann wrote. “For years, some in the meat industry have tried to prevent vegetable imitations of meat from using free speech to describe its product accurately. Now it is moving onto the next economic threat."

DeSana has been a farmer for two decades. He is a member of the Michigan Sheep Producers Association as well as the Michigan Cattlemen’s Association.

DeSana, a first-term lawmaker, ran for office after his son couldn’t compete on a rowing team during his senior year due to COVID restrictions.

“The ‘follow-the-science’ crowd canceled a sport that competes outside in the fresh air, on a river. I’m done with these people,” DeSana said in a press release. “I don’t trust them when they say to follow The Science because they did some of the most anti-scientific things possible, and they still haven’t acknowledged the harm they caused. So no, I don’t want lab-grown meat as a substitute for the real thing and I don’t want to get my protein by eating bugs. Let the chickens eat the bugs the way nature intended; we’ll eat the chickens.”

He also introduced a resolution to enshrine the right to hunt in Michigan’s constitution.