On June 14, the Michigan State Court of Appeals, in effect, has put a statewide referendum back on the Michigan ballot. Earlier, the State Board of Canvassers had taken it off the ballot, on the ground that the font size on the petition was slightly different than the required font. See this story. It is still possible the Michigan Supreme Court will reverse the State Court of Appeals. The case is Stand Up for Democracy v Secretary of State, 310047.
The decision actually was released on June 8, but the 3-judge panel had stayed its own decision, while all the judges considered whether to rehear the case. But on June 14, the other judges said they didn’t wish the case reheard. The June 8 opinion says that the petition font really was too small, but that the panel is bound by a 2002 decision that says substantial compliance is good enough. The law requires 14-point font and the court concluded that the petition used 12-point font. Font sizes are sometimes ambiguous and date back to a French standard established in 1737. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.
This looks like justice. Can it prevail? The ruling by MI’s high court will say everything that needs to be said about them as a court and as individuals.
It is NOW a W-A-R to get on the ballots ANY thing NOT approved by the gerrymander monsters.
Were the printed versions of the 1776 DOI, 1777 Articles of Confederation and 1787 Constitution all in the politically correct font sizes of the times involved ???
Mich Sup Ct has 7 robot party hacks – nominated as party hacks and allegedly elected as nice nonpartisan candidates.
Major EVIL in the rotted Michigan courts regime.
The COA and lower court judges are nominated and elected in nonpartisan elections — BUT many of them are initially appointed to fill vacancies by robot party hack Mich Governors – i.e. are de facto safe for life after being appointed.
Pingback: Links 6/15/12 « naked capitalism
Pingback: Links 6/15/12 « naked capitalism
What standard did Gutenberg and his printing press have for his fonts in the mere Dark Age 1400s ???
Is civilization very quickly going back to the STONE AGE due to EVIL robot party control freak hacks ???
a trivia note —
About twenty years ago here in Missouri I did a bit of graphic art work and was involved in collecting thousands of signatures on petitions (for a third party). Those petition sheets followed the state’s legal layout.
But when I ran out of the petition sheets I was given I actually printed up my own in which I modified (both larger and smaller) some font sizes of texts and changed the size of the blank spaces (making some larger, some smaller) for the signer’s info.
Soon some other petitioners found my version more user friendly and began circulating them too, much to the horror of the petition-drive coordinators who feared having two versions.
But in the end the election authorities matter-of-factly accepted both versions and actually complimented the better layout that even they found a bit easier to check signatures etc on.