Detroit Officials Violated Citizens Input Over Surveillance Ordinance To Approve Shotspotter

A state appeals court handed a partial victory to critics of Detroit’s controversial ShotSpotter surveillance system, ruling that city officials violated a transparency ordinance when they approved contracts for the gunshot detection technology without properly notifying the public. …

“The City of Detroit uses surveillance technology to identify the location of gunshots in certain precincts,” Judge Brock Swartzle wrote for the majority. “Given the inherent invasiveness of surveillance technology, the City adopted specific procedural requirements that must be met when procuring such technology. These requirements were not met here.” …

“Much congrats to each of our clients for standing up in this case on behalf of all residents of the city,” John Philo, executive and legal director for Sugar Law Center, said. “While more limited in scope than hoped for, the court’s decision is an important recognition that citizens’ oversight and input ordinances matter and cannot simply be ignored by government officials.”

See full story by Steve Neavling at the MetroTimes.

A panel of judges overturned a lower court ruling … Judges found the city repeatedly violated requirements to publicly post a report on how the technology works before holding public hearings at City Council but stopped short of voiding the contracts, allowing a lower court to determine the consequence.

“With surveillance and similar technology ever encroaching into every recess of modern life, procedural safeguards cannot be ignored or downplayed by government actors as mere technicalities,” reads a joint opinion from Presiding Judge Kristina Robinson Garrett and Judge Brock Swartzle.

“Proper oversight includes a knowledgeable public,” Philo said. “To leave that behind is a cynical approach to government and a cynical approach to democracy overall. In terms of whether ShotSpotter is good or bad, that’s not what this case is about. If you’re going to adopt it, then let’s have an informed public and an honest debate about the pros and cons of that technology, and let’s report what it’s doing.

Full story by Malachi Barrett available at Bridge Detroit and Detroit Free Press.

Michigan Supreme Court Considers Whether People Can Bring Suit To Stop Prospective Harm From Unconstitutional Conduct Of State Officials

The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center is suing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in her official capacity to end the state’s policy of denying worker’s compensation to undocumented immigrants who are injured while working. …

“The reality is, many employers gladly hire workers who don’t have work permits because they can pay them less and get away with more cutting corners on health and safety protections and when workers are inevitably injured, workers compensation insurance companies know they can deny wage loss benefits without challenge,” Galendez said …

John Philo, the executive and legal director of the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, noted that this issue has already been addressed in Ohio and Minnesota, where in both states undocumented workers have been guaranteed access to worker’s compensation. The Sugar Law Center is representing the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center alongside FarmSTAND, a legal advocacy organization focused on issues of corporate agriculture. …

However, this case, first filed in 2021 in the Court of Claims, has become about more than just immigrant rights, argued lawyer David Muraskin, managing director for litigation at FarmSTAND. The Court of Appeals, overturning a decision from the Court of Claims, ruled in May 2024 that the argument was not timely — thus making Whitmer subject to immunity — because the claim was filed more than one year after the governor’s policy went into effect.

“That would mean that when the governor has a policy of any unconstitutional conduct, including this one, the fact that she got away with it for a year would keep anyone from ever going to court,” Muraskin said.

See full story by Katherine Dailey at Michigan Advance and Ionesco County News Herald.

Workers Who Received Unemployment Insurance During The Pandemic Receive Surprise Bills From The State

The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency, UIA, told roughly 350,000 people last month they must repay their benefits. The state agency is seeking to recover $2.7 billion from workers who it says were overpaid benefits, meaning they got money when they weren’t supposed to, mostly in 2020 and 2021 during the height of the pandemic.

A court order had blocked the state from recouping these pandemic-era overpayments since December 2022. But it has since been lifted, as collections started again on Sept. 29. …

[L]awyers are worried, in some cases, the agency might be demanding benefits back from people who shouldn’t have to pay it. “Some folks probably are, unfortunately, going to be making payments voluntarily just because they don’t want anything worse to happen,” said Tony Paris, an attorney from the Sugar Law Center in Detroit. …

“When it comes to like who’s going to bear the weight of the mistake that happened at the end of the day, it shouldn’t be the worker and the law provides that it shouldn’t be the worker,” said Jacob Fallman, UIA Policy Coordinator at the Sugar Law Center.

See full story by Rose White at MLive.

Some pandemic-era unemployment insurance claimants who were at one point told they weren't eligible for benefits — but later won their case through an appeal hearing — are now being told by Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency that they owe the money back, attorneys representing these claimants say. …

In one case, Tony Paris, deputy legal director at the Sugar Law Center in Detroit, said one of his clients won a hearing and was found eligible for benefits in September 2024. The UIA never appealed it, he said, and the decision became final. Now, his client is getting a bill for about $30,000.

"She's not alone," Paris said in an email. "I've spoken with dozens of people, most former clients whose appeals (or) hearings I won years ago, who are now being asked to make payments."

See full story by Adrienne Roberts ad the Detroit Free Press.

The winding road to minimum wage increase and paid sick time for Michigan workers

A new Michigan State Bar Journal article by John Philo from the Sugar Law Center summarizes recent changes to the state's minimum wage and paid sick leave laws (Public Acts 1 & 2 of 2025).

"While most changes expand existing rights of employees, Public Act 2 ... eliminate[s] employees’ ability to bring a civil action against their employer ... vest[ing] enforcement exclusively within complaint procedures established by Michigan’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. ... the amendments of Public Act 1 and 2 of 2025 more closely approximate the requirements of the citizens’ initiatives that prompted their enactment. However, the amendments continue to materially deviate from those initiatives in a number of areas. And while seemingly adopted in part at the suggestion of ... the Michigan Supreme Court ... it may remain to be determined just how far a legislative enactment can deviate from the provisions of a citizen’s initiative and still remain compliant with the requirements of Michigan Constitution at art. II, § 9."

Full article available here, at the State Bar of Michigan Journal.

Democrat Michigan AG Asked FBI to Raid Protesters’ Homes — But Won’t Tell Students Why

“These raids were very much seen as an escalation by the state attorney general, who’s expressed quite a bit of an extreme reaction against the students’ activism on the University of Michigan campus,” said John Philo, executive and legal director of the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice …Nessel, who asked the FBI to carry out the raids … has extensive personal, political, and financial ties to the University of Michigan, which bypassed local prosecutors by enlisting Nessel to crack down on pro-Palestine protesters … According to Philo and Liz Jacob, also of the Sugar Law Center …  Folks were shocked, especially to see that the FBI was executing an attorney general warrant, Jacob told The Intercept in an interview. I’ve never seen that in my experience, and we have not seen that in Michigan around pro-Palestine protests or on any other protests, to my knowledge.”

See full story by Aja Arnold at The Intercept here.

Michigan Raids on pro-Palestine Students

Great Chapo Trap House podcast covering the Mich AG’s searches of UM student protestors’ homes, where she called in the FBI and local police alleging “multijurisdictional” acts of vandalism by unknown persons. It is part of a pattern of actions intended to silence students from expressing views in support of divestment from Israel as a means to stop a genocide in Palestine. See Chapo Trap House podcast here.

Hakim et. al. v. Regents of the U of M, et. al.

“University of Michigan students and employees are claiming in a new federal lawsuit that they were wrongfully terminated by the Ann Arbor-based institution in retaliation for participating in pro-Palestine protests on campus … The Sugar Law Center and American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee filed the complaint Thursday, May 1, in U.S. District Court, alleging the university violated First Amendment free speech rights, as well as Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process.” … “Sadly, the University of Michigan is trying to resurrect an old but previously discarded tactic of firing and blacklisting workers whose viewpoints they don’t agree with,” John Philo, executive and legal director of the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, said in a statement. “By all accounts, each of our clients was a dedicated employee performing necessary work for the university.” See article by Jackie Smith at MLive here.

Lawsuit: U-M fired 8 pro-Palestinian staffers and forever banned them from working there … See Detroit Freep Press story by Tresa Baldas here.

Former University of Michigan employees alleged in a new lawsuit that they were illegally fired and barred from seeking future work at the university because they participated in demonstrations to support ... See Law360 article by Danielle Ferguson here.

Sugar Law Center and the ADC file Suit to Stop the Unconstitutional Firings & Lifetime Bans of Employment for Workers at the University of Michigan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

News from the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice 

May 1, 2025 

Contacts:

Liz Jacob, ljacob@sugarlaw.org, (313) 993-4505 ext. 7

John Philo, jphilo@sugarlaw.org, (313) 993-4505 ext. 3 

ON INTERNATIONAL WORKERS’S DAY, UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEES SUE THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN FOR WRONGFUL TERMINATION AND BLACKLISTING BECAUSE THEY EXPRESSED PRO-PALESTINE SPEECH 

One full-time employee and seven student employees were terminated by the University of Michigan solely for attending pro-Palestine protests on non-work time and outside of their jobs. 

ANN ARBOR – On May Day, The Sugar Law Center and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee filed a federal lawsuit to protect the Constitutional and civil rights of workers whom the University of Michigan terminated and forever barred from future employment because they participated in pro-Palestine protests on the University’s campus. After attending a peaceful on-campus sit-in to call for the University’s divestment from Israel or participating in an impromptu demonstration on public sidewalks to call on Regents to meet with students and support divestment, workers were targeted by the University with adverse employment actions.

 After speaking out in support of Palestinian human rights, eight workers – one full-time employee and seven student workers – were fired from their employment and permanently blacklisted from future employment for the entire University of Michigan system. The lawsuit alleges that the University’s actions violate the student workers’ First Amendment right to Free Speech and their Fourteenth Amendment right to Due Process. Further, the lawsuit states that these adverse employment actions are yet another attempt from the University of Michigan to unconstitutionally punish pro-Palestine protesters at the Ann Arbor campus.  

“On May 3rd, 2024, I joined hands with members of the campus community outside the University of Michigan Art Museum to call on the regents to speak with us about divesting from israel’s genocide on Gaza. After the Regents refused to address the students and community members of the University, University Police pepper sprayed and assaulted us. Then, eleven months later, I and other workers were fired from our university employment and blacklisted as punishment for calling for divestment,” said Eaman Ali, a plaintiff and undergraduate student at University of Michigan. “The University of Michigan Regents are attacking our right to free speech so they can avoid accountability for their complicity in genocide. Despite their attempts to punish workers and paint the pro-Palestine movement as violent, we know that the real violence is the university’s insistence on funding the mass murder of Palestinians.”

“Sadly, the University of Michigan is trying to resurrect an old but previously discarded tactic of firing and blacklisting workers whose viewpoints they don’t agree with. By all accounts, each of our clients was a dedicated employee performing necessary work for the University” said John Philo, Executive and Legal Director of the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice. “University officials and Michigan’s Attorney General have taken many seemingly coordinated actions to undermine the free speech of pro-Palestine protesters on campus. It is critical that we fight back against these attacks on our Freedom of Speech. The University’s shameful and unconstitutional attempts to silence viewpoints by firing student workers and forever barring them from any future employment must be reversed.”  

“There is a nationwide assault on freedom of expression if you support the rights of the Palestinian people. The contempt for the constitutional rights of pro-Palestine advocates should be offensive to anyone who values their right to speak” said Chris Godshall-Bennett, National Legal Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. “The government, whether federal, state, or a public university, cannot punish you because they don’t agree with you, even if you work for them. We will not cede these rights and those who violate them will be held to account.”

"By firing workers as a means to suppress speech it disagrees with, the University of Michigan violates their rights both as citizens and as employees," said American Federal of Teachers- Michigan President Terrence Martin. "The Michigan labor movement stands with all workers on campus. We will always fight to uphold free speech and conduct that is protected by the First Amendment, and we're especially alarmed that the University is prepared to violate state labor law by refusing to bargain the termination of a member of our union."

"The University of Michigan claims to value activism, political engagement, and dissent. But when that free speech addresses the genocide in Palestine, the University is quick to rewrite its rules," said attorney Ezra Ritchin. "Much like the Trump administration, the University policed, punished, fired, and blacklisted those who bravely spoke out in support of Palestinian life and freedom.”

Read the full complaint 

____________________________________________________________

The Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys John Philo, Liz Jacob, and Tony Paris at the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, Chris Godshall-Bennett at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and attorney Ezra Ritchin. 

About the Sugar Law Center: The Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice is a national non-profit, public-interest law center. Sugar Law Center provides legal advocacy, representation, education and technical support to workers and communities seeking systemic change toward economic and social justice. For more information on the Sugar Law Center, visit www.sugarlaw.org. 

About the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee: American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (“ADC”) is a civil rights organization committed to defending the rights of people of Arab descent and promoting their rich cultural heritage. ADC was founded by former U.S. Senator James Abourezk in 1980. Today, ADC is the largest Arab American grassroots organization in the U.S. For more information about ADC, visit adc.org 

State AG Brings in FBI to Target Student Protestors

See coverage of our work in support the first amendment rights of student protestors who have been targeted by the State AG because of their viewpoints favoring divestment from Israel at the University of Michigan, a stop to the genocide in Gaza, and advocating for Palestinian human rights.

CNN, The students that were targeted appear to be those that UM officials believe are most active in on-campus protests - protests that have been loud at times…but which in no way can be characterized as violent or causing significant vandalism,” [John] Philo [from the Sugar Law Center] said. “Other than a shared viewpoint concerning Palestine, a real question exists as to why student campus protestors are being targeted or is that the point - because they are expressing that viewpoint on UM’s campus.”

Michigan Public Radio, “Liz Jacob, a staff attorney at Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, represents the Tahrir Coalition alongside other pro-Palestinian advocacy groups at U of M. She said she got some panicked phone calls Wednesday morning at about 7 a.m. from activists who were woken up by officers at their doorstep.”

Detroit Free Press, "Everyone who was raided has taken part in protest and has some relationship to the University of Michigan," said Liz Jacob, an attorney with the Sugar Law Center in Detroit, which is representing several protesters who say they've been effectively banned from campus. "We are totally convinced that, but for their viewpoints, these students would not have been targeted."

MetroTimes, “John Philo, an attorney with the Sugar Law Center, says the raids were “very clearly intended to influence the content of debate on the University of Michigan campus,” noting that the students targeted were academically successful and had no criminal histories.”

Common Dreams, “Federal and local law enforcement officers smashed their way into the Michigan homes of pro-Palestine student organizers on Wednesday in what the state attorney general's office said was a vandalism probe—but critics called an attack on dissent against Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza"

Fox 2, "There’s no question it took everybody by surprise, the scale of it took people by surprise," said John Philo, an attorney. "They’ve clearly been following the students for a period of time." He says each of the raids conducted targeted the homes of local supporters who had protested at the University of Michigan … "That is breathtaking, shocking and appalling, that acts of vandalism at least on the scale that’s occured at the University of Michigan campus, are no more than misdemeanors, are drawing out federal police, the state attorney general is coordinating with Trump’s administration's FBI, the state troopers are there, for something they’re [the State AG] calling acts of vandalism."

Mich. Regulators Won't Stop DTE Practices That Punish Low Income Persons

“Advocates sought to restrict the practice, with some arguing it preyed on low-income customers, forcing them to ferry around large amounts of cash and go out of their way to stay current on electric bills.”

“I’ve seen firsthand how the requirement to pay DTE Energy bills in cash adds so much stress and burden on the low-income clients that I serve,” said Liz Jacob, a staff attorney with the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice in Detroit, who has worked with those facing the cash-only mandate.”

See MLive.com article by Lucas Smolcic Larson here.