Which of the following are guaranteed by the Constitution (and plain Justice before that): 1) correct arithmetic, 2) valid logic, 3) prompt and fuss free correction of mistakes, 4) law interpretation in English (or the language it is/was written in), 5) self-defense, 6) court awarded damages for violation of one's rights? I (and maybe you) would think "all 6." But the U.S. Supreme Court to date has only solidly endorsed #5 as being a right. Granted that most lower courts will throw out #1 cases and such cases won't be appealed and that success of appeals often rest on a higher court overturning a lower court's #2 invalid logic (or, unfortunately, using invalid logic themselves to thwart real Justice). Recall Hamilton's "love of power" paragraph in USA Founders Thoughts Federalist No. 15.
Further, while you might believe that for civil suits you have a right to a jury trial, that (according to the government, Federal and Michigan) is not true, the Constitution's Amendment VII plain language be damned. The courts have now written very subordinate rules (i.e., way below "supreme Law of the Land"5) so that the courts, and government parties, can simply pretend they don't understand how you're following (or not?) those rules to simply pitch you out of court without trial on the merits of the law thus totally violating the very reason the 7th Amendment was written in the first place, for "the People" to have a check on the power (or its abuse) of judges and Justices6.
In my case the Michigan Courts never looked at the arithmetic: $5,087.39 per month times 12 months equals annual pay of $61,048.68 which, divided by 2,080 hours in a pay year, yields a rate of $29.35 per hour and multiplying that times 102 hours of earned vacation results in a correct pay amount of $2,993.70 thus a discrepancy of $389.44 from the $2,604.26 that MSU calculated. MSU did acknowledge part of their mistake in that they subtracted 94 from 102 hours and originally arrived at 0 rather than the correct 8 which they promised to pay for but then did not. They didn't even try to address the $154.64 discrepancy of 94 times $29.35 = $2,758.90 rather than $2,604.26.
Further MSU, the Michigan UIA, a Michigan ALJ, the Michigan UIAC, and the Michigan courts all chose to ignore Michigan law, in particular the "However…" sentence of MCL 421.48(2). [my emphasis in all]
MCL 421.48(1) An individual shall be considered unemployed for any week during which he or she performs no services and for which remuneration is not payable…
(2) All amounts paid to a claimant by an employing unit or former employing unit for a vacation or a holiday … as the result of the separation…shall be considered remuneration … under section 27(c) …. However, payments for a vacation …, or the right to which has irrevocably vested, after 14 days following [such] shall not be considered wages or remuneration within the meaning of this section.
The State of Michigan through its employees, administrative agencies, lawyers, and judiciary have gone to extraordinary lengths to abuse their power and to ignore the MCL 421.48(2) "However" sentence and the CBA paragraph -159 "departmental requirements" of which, by definition, there are none on layoff (which is not "termination" per CBA -171 and other exhibits).[re "irrevocably" per the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) Article 21 Vacation Pay
-159 An Employee may take vacation at any time during the year with permission of the supervisor and in accordance with departmental requirements.
-171 An Employee will receive payment for unused vacation when terminating employment.]
More than just the above can be found in the case put before the U.S. Supreme Court where the ultimate plan of MSU (so they thought) came to fruition by their signaling the U.S. Supreme Court, through waiver responses (Nov 19 1922 and Dec 01 1922), that the Supreme Court should just deny certiorari. Except the Supreme Court's Constitutional responsibility is clearly set out at Constitution Article III, § 2, 2. "In all Cases … in which a State shall be Party" and Article III, § 2, 1. "[t]he judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution." I contend that correct arithmetic, valid logic, and law interpretation in English are all 9th Amendment rights and all have been ignored by the State of Michigan and the Supreme Court. The Courts choose to ignore those rights to "fly off from the common centre," you, "the People," and "Justice," in "judicial" and "Justice" POWER plays.
5 U.S. Constitution Article VI clause 2 (or paragraph 2).
6 See Federalist No. 83 (search "federalist papers" at gutenberg.org)
ATTACHMENTS Many megabytes of case files beyond the ones above can be requested by contacting jim@usareset.net.