On May 5, the Sixth Circuit issued an order in Esshaki v Whitmer, 20-1336, the case over whether the Michigan primary petition requirements were too severe this year due to the health crisis.  The panel agreed that the original requirement was too difficult to be constitutional for 2020.  But it said that the U.S. District Court should merely have ruled that it was too difficult, and let the state decide what to replace it with.

The majority decision is not signed, but was authored by either Judge Alice M. Batchelder, a Bush Sr. appointee; or Judge John K. Bush, a Trump appointee.  The third judge, Jane B. Stranch, an Obama appointee, felt the U.S. District Court acted appropriately when he set a new petition standard of 50% of the original requirement.  Judge Stranch’s dissent is longer than the majority order, and cites many instances when the U.S. Supreme Court approved lower court orders that imposed specific policies (to be in place temporarily) when the old law was invalidated.