Court Opinion

ID: 9366556
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-27 05:04:36.52969+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:53.503593
License: Public Domain

If this opinion indicates that it is “FOR PUBLICATION,” it is subject to
                  revision until final publication in the Michigan Appeals Reports.

                           STATE OF MICHIGAN

                            COURT OF APPEALS

MOTHERING JUSTICE, MICHIGAN ONE FAIR                                  FOR PUBLICATION
WAGE, MICHIGAN TIME TO CARE,                                          January 26, 2023
RESTAURANT OPPORTUNITIES CENTER OF
MICHIGAN, JAMES HAWK, and TIA MARIE
SANDERS,

               Plaintiffs-Appellees,

v                                                                     No. 362271
                                                                      Court of Claims
ATTORNEY GENERAL,                                                     LC No. 21-000095-MM

               Defendant-Appellee,

and

STATE OF MICHIGAN,

               Defendant-Appellant.

Before: M. J. KELLY, P.J., and MURRAY and RIORDAN, JJ.

M. J. KELLY, P.J. (concurring).

         As noted by Judge MURRAY, the only issue before us is to determine whether the procedure
known as “adopt and amend” passes muster under our state constitution. I concur with the majority
that it does. Although this procedure is permissible under the language of our constitution, this
ploy—adopting an initiative into law so as to prevent it from going onto the ballot and then
promptly and substantially amending that law in a manner that has left it essentially defanged—is
anti-democratic. I cannot believe that this drastic action is what the drafters of our constitution
even contemplated, let alone intended.

        If the individuals responsible for this maneuver ever wonder why public opinion polls
consistently cast politicians low when it comes to the virtue of trust, they need look no further than
what they did here. It is a direct assault on one of the rights our founding fathers and the drafters
of our state constitution held dear: the right of the citizens to petition their government.

                                                 -1-
       When the history of this legislature is written, it is difficult to imagine anybody saying that
this was their finest hour.

                                                              /s/ Michael J. Kelly

                                                 -2-