# In re Certified Questions **Michigan Supreme Court, 2 October 2020**, on questions certified from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan in *Midwest Institute of Health, PLLC v. Governor*. The court held that the **Emergency Powers of the Governor Act of 1945** was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power under the Michigan Constitution, and that the governor had lacked authority to continue emergency declarations past the point the legislature declined to extend them. The holding is notable less for its COVID-19 context than for what it demonstrates about **state nondelegation doctrine**. The federal [[Nondelegation Doctrine]] has not voided a statute since 1935; state courts strike delegations with some regularity, under state constitutions that often contain more explicit separation-of-powers language than the federal one. Michigan struck the **statute**, not the declaration and not any particular order. Read alongside [[Wisconsin Legislature v. Palm]], the pair establishes the pattern mapped in [[State Emergency Powers Crosswalk]]: courts will not review whether an emergency exists, but will review whether the legislature ever granted the power being exercised, and whether the form of the order matches the procedure the legislature prescribed. ## See also - [[State Emergency Powers Crosswalk]] · [[Wisconsin Legislature v. Palm]] · [[Nondelegation Doctrine]] · [[Major Questions Doctrine]] · [[Emergency Powers]]