The Michigan Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a case addressing whether the City of Royal Oak violated the Open Meetings Act because the city commission effectively delegated its governing authority to the city manager, who chose in closed-door meetings which applicants would be awarded retail marijuana licenses.

A utility company’s “franchise fee” was an “unauthorized tax” that violated the Michigan Constitution and, as a result, the utility company could not collect the fee from its customers and then remit the collected fees to the City of East Lansing, the Michigan Supreme Court has ruled.