Lawsuit Filed to Invalidate New Michigan Bill Requiring Initiative Petitions to be Completed in 180 Days

On June 16, a lawsuit was filed in Michigan state court against SB 776, which was passed recently and limits the circulation period for initiatives to 180 days. Michigan Comprehensive Cannabis Law Reform Committee v Johnson, Lansing, 16-131-MM. The plaintiff needed 252,523 valid signatures, and gathered approximately 354,000. However 137,000 signatures were considered invalid because they had been collected before the start period for this initiative.

The bill setting the 180-day limit had been introduced February 10, 2016, and wasn’t passed until May 18. It was signed into law on June 6, long after the sponsors had been working on this initiative. Before the bill was passed into law, the Secretary of State had an administrative requirement that signatures be collected within 180 days, which had been enforced starting in 1986.

The lawsuit charges that (1) the bill can’t go into effect immediately because it didn’t pass with two-thirds in each house of the legislature: (2) the bill violates the State Constitution, which seems to say that initiatives can be collected over a period of three and one-half years; (3) the law violates the U.S. Constitution. There are other issues raised by the Complaint as well. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the information about the lawsuit.

Comments

Lawsuit Filed to Invalidate New Michigan Bill Requiring Initiative Petitions to be Completed in 180 Days — 13 Comments

John Anthony La Pietra on June 17, 2016 at 8:36 am said:

This is the second lawsuit against the bill. The Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan filed suit two weeks ago. CBFM’s complaint and a news release on the subject are here:

http://www.letsbanfracking.org/index.php/complaint
Demo Rep on June 17, 2016 at 12:05 pm said:

What States do NOT permit the robot gerrymander HACKS to mess with the petitions of the People — i.e. for const amdts and/or laws ???

The 1963 Mich Const gives the hacks the power to totally screw with the petition process — i.e. make it de facto impossible.

i.e. the 180 days in a robot hack law is totally arbitrary.

i.e. ANY petition effort for REAL Democracy has to totally prevent the hacks from messing with it —

i.e. MUST BE SELF-ENFORCING — form, type size, exact language, etc.
Demo Rep on June 17, 2016 at 12:23 pm said:

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/07/bureau-marijuana-signatures-ballot/85547102/

Story about the MJ petition and the 180 days mess.

Will the robot gerrymander hacks make a ONE day limit or less ???
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