Whitmer’s COVID emergency orders survived three years after lockdown

Michigan has made little progress in passing laws that could constrain a governor’s emergency powers since the state led the nation in embracing destructive policies during the COVID-19 events. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer asserted significant control over state government, the economy and social activity over a three-year period. She did not rescind her last order until May 11, 2023.

“These executive orders are not a suggestion,” said Whitmer in 2020. “They’re not optional. They’re not helpful hints. And I expect all Michiganders to comply with the law.”

Her orders, which included banning the sale of gardening seeds while allowing alcohol purchases, baffled Michigan residents and drew ridicule even from mainstream media. Whitmer also unilaterally prohibited people from using motorboats and getting haircuts, among other activities. The state's economy, schools, and population growth have all been slow to recover in the years since the emergency orders.

Michigan Capitol Confidential reported in 2021 that the science Whitmer cited to support her orders did not exist. When the governor’s administration was asked for the science, it offered no documents.

Not all of Whitmer’s pandemic-era orders were in effect for the entire three years.

Her last pandemic order, issued May 11, 2023, was to rescind the remaining seven orders. Those orders included requirements for reporting COVID deaths, which dated as far back as April 4, 2020.

The governor was still issuing executive orders as recently as October 2022, two-and-a-half years after her first orders of March 2020.

Of the seven remaining orders, three involved safety, vaccine, and testing requirements for residents and staff at residential care facilities.

The Whitmer administration faced criticism over orders that likely contributed to deaths of nursing home patients. Michigan allowed COVID-19-positive nursing home patients to remain among the general population at the facilities.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services was not forthcoming with information requested about COVID deaths in nursing homes, the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation's Steve Delie told a Michigan House Oversight Committee hearing on nursing home deaths.