Free Republic

The November 2018 election brought sweeping changes to election law in Michigan. Proposal_2, establishing a non-partisan ‘independent’ redistricting commission, and Proposal_3, mandating several registration/voting policy changes, passed with better than 60% of the vote and were incorporated into the Michigan constitution. Apparently, the constitutional amendment path was used to block a possible future Republican legislature and governor from rescinding these provisions. However, at this time there is little chance there will be any attempt at that, because Michigan voters also enthusiastically rushed three Democrat females into the offices of the governor, attorney general and secretary of state. The Republicans may...

From the racial makeup of University of California classrooms to the number of minority contractors working on BART projects, California's 17-year ban on affirmative action programs has indelibly marked the nation's largest state. But now the debate over whether that experiment has caused more harm than good will take a back seat to a larger national question: Are laws such as California's affirmative-action ban, Proposition 209, unconstitutional, and should be overturned? On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a challenge to Michigan's Proposal 2, a 2006 voter-approved law that mirrored Proposition 209 by barring the use of...

The Ann Arbor school district has ended a controversial black-student only program at Dicken Elementary School. “Lunch Bunch is no longer,” district spokeswoman Liz Margolis said in an e-mail to AnnArbor.com. “It will be discussed among staff and some parents and be reworked. It has a valuable goal of assisting children who are not performing well on the MEAP, and this effort will continue.” Dicken Principal Mike Madison drew criticism from parents following his decision last week to take members of the African-American Lunch Bunch on a field trip to hear a black rocket scientist at the University of Michigan...

All these years Americans have obeyed unwise laws granting special preferences to certain groups. For a while, there may have been some justification for treating some Americans differently from others, but that is no longer true, if it ever was. Now, Mary Sue Coleman, President of the University of Michigan, should obey the law. Why is it that leftists always think they know best and have a higher ‘duty’ to subvert laws with which they disagree? This reminds me of Michael Dukakis and John Kerry (as Governor and Lt. Governor of Massachusetts), who conspired to give fake Social Security Numbers...

Appeals court tosses same-sex benefits case on technicality 4/15/2005, 4:53 p.m. ET By DAVID EGGERT The Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The state appeals court on Friday dismissed a challenge to the Ann Arbor school district's same-sex benefits policy but avoided the bigger legal issue by tossing out the case on a technicality. The court said 17 taxpayers, represented by a Christian law group, failed to follow the proper procedures for halting the alleged misappropriation of public dollars. Barring an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court, the ruling means the broader issue will be decided by a lower court,...

ACLU files suit over state constitutional ban on gay marriage 3/21/2005, 11:34 a.m. ET By BREE FOWLER The Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — A lawsuit challenging a recent attorney general's opinion that bans public employers from offering benefits to same-sex couples in future contracts was filed Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. The lawsuit, filed in Ingham County Circuit Court, asks the court to rule that Proposal 2 does not bar government employers from providing health insurance and other benefits to employees' same-sex partners and their children. Those bringing the suit include a Washington-based AFL-CIO group called...