After Whitmer extended the order and tightened restrictions in April, an eight-hour protest against the restrictions organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and co-hosted by the Michigan Freedom Fund attracted between 3,000 and 4,000 protesters to the Michigan State Capitol. "New York Times" columnist Charlie Warzel described the demonstration as "twisted, paranoid and racialized", pushed by conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones. Jeanine Pirro of Fox News praised the protesters, saying, "God bless them, it’s going to happen all over the country". At the time of the protest, more than 1,900 people in Michigan had died after contracting the virus. On April 29, a Michigan judge upheld the order against legal challenge, ruling that "Our fellow residents have an interest to remain unharmed by a highly communicable and deadly virus. And since the state entered the Union in 1837, it has had the broad power to act for the public health of the entire state when faced with a public crisis.”