Court Opinion

ID: 9720220
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:21:07.622203+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:14.284501
License: Public Domain

T. M. Burns, J.
(dissenting). I cannot agree with my brothers of the bench that the proposed amendment to Article 8, Section 2 of the Michigan Constitution does not alter or abrogate an existing constitutional provision. The precise effect of the proposed amendment upon the existing constitution does not appear anywhere on the petition. The proposed amendment, as it appeared on the petition, reads:
“Article 8, Section 2. No public monies or property shall be appropriated or paid or any public credit utilized, by the legislature or any other political subdivision or agency of the state directly or indirectly to aid or maintain any private, denominational or other nonpublic, pre-elementary, elementary, or secondary school. No payment, credit, tax *410benefit, exemption or deductions, tuition voucher, subsidy, grant or loan of public monies or property shall be provided, directly or indirectly, to support the attendance of any student or the employment of any person at any such nonpublic school or at any location or institution where instruction is offered in whole or in part to such nonpublic school students. The legislature may provide for the transportation of students to and from any school.”
Since the Michigan Constitution already has an Article 8, Section 2, I can only assume that the proposed amendment is intended to replace the language already existing under that section. The fact that the parties before the Court agreed that the proposed amendment will not replace the language presently existing under Article 8, Section 2, but rather will be an addition to the existing provision, is irrelevant, since the purpose of the requirements of MCLA § 168.482 (Stat Ann 1970 Cum Supp § 6.1482) is to insure that the signers of a petition will be advised of not only the amendment proposed to be adopted, but also of exactly how the amendment would change the present constitution. Since a signer of the petition would have no way of knowing what effect the proposed amendment would have upon the present constitution, the requirements of MCLA § 168.482 (Stat Ann 1970 Cum Supp § 6.1482) have not been met.
The petition for mandamus should be dismissed.