Michigan High Court to hear arguments over redistricting proposal

[RandySF]

Lansing — The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider a legal challenge to a potential ballot proposal that would create a citizen committee to redraw political boundaries every 10 years.

The high court ordered a July 18 special session to hear oral arguments in the case.

The "Voters Not Politicians" initiative seeks to amend the state Constitution to create a 13-member redistricting commission that would draw new political maps every decade, a process currently controlled by whichever political party is in charge in Lansing.

The opposition group Citizens Protecting Michigan’s Constitution sued in an attempt to keep the measure off the ballot, arguing the proposal is too broad to be considered an amendment to the state Constitution. Such changes should require a constitutional convention, they argued.

The Michigan Court of Appeals rejected the opposition suit in June, calling it a "narrowly tailored” proposal and ordering the Board of State Canvassers to certify the group’s petitions.

Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette last month urged the Michigan Supreme Court to overrule that decision, arguing the proposal would “alter the fundamental division of powers within our government" beyond a simple amendment.

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and former U.S. Sen Carl Levin, a Detroit Democrat, recently field a brief encouraging the Supreme Court to allow the measure on the ballot.

Initiative supporters say Michigan’s current system for drawing state and federal political districts allows the majority party to “gerrymander” boundaries for political benefit.

The suit seeking to keep the measure off the ballot is “—an attempt to ensure that the status quo remains in place in Michigan for yet another decade-long redistricting cycle,” said the Common Cause legal brief backed by Schwarzenegger and Levin.

The Michigan Supreme Court, in its Friday order, called for 60 minutes of oral arguments on July 18. Each side will have 30 minutes to argue whether the proposal is an voter-initiated constitutional amendment fit for the ballot or whether it qualifies as a revision to the constitution “and therefore ineligible for placement on the ballot.”


https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/07/06/michigan-supreme-court-redistricting-proposal-gerrymandering/764097002/

[Blue_true]

1. Republicans fighting to stop democracy again.

I wonder what they are going to do when the old White people that majority support them are dead and POC are dominant in politics? Stuff like what republicans are pushing today will be used against them bigtime 25 years from now, but they never think that far out.

[roamer65]

2. The justices of the Michigan SC had better remember that they are elected.

We will get recalls going on everyone one of them that votes to nullify this proposal from the ballot.

That’s not a threat. It’s a promise.