Employees & Judge of the Second Judicial District Court v. Hillsdale County

These cases require determination of whether a trial court may employ an administrative order to compel funding in excess of appropriations and consideration of a procedure to guide the fair and expeditious resolution of conflicts between the judiciary and local funding units.

The governmental funding crisis that is the backdrop for these conflicts began in this state in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. An explosion of litigation, the creation of new courts, new judicial remedies, inflation, the introduction of unionization into the public sector, substantial unemployment, and public…