Michigan Civil Rights Initiative

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The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), or Proposal 2 (Michigan 06-2), was a ballot initiative in the U.S. state of Michigan that passed into Michigan Constitutional law by a 58% to 42% margin on November 7, 2006, according to results officially certified by the Michigan Secretary of State. The proposal is scheduled to become law on December 22, 2006, but has several legal challenges pending.

The subject of the proposal has been hotly debated, with the very definitions of what it encompasses at the center of the debate. Proponents argue that it banned programs in public hiring, public employment, and public education that "give preferential to" or "discriminate against" individuals on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, or national origin. Opponents argue that Proposa 2 banned all affirmative action programs in the operation of public employment, education, or contracting. The ongoing battle over these definitions is playing out both in court and here on Wikipedia.

Proponents cite the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the "Equal Protection" clause of the 14th Amendment that forbids the United States or any state from denying "equal protection of the law" to any citizen as models for the proposal. It is a near copy of similar initiatives in California (Proposition 209) and Washington.

During the early debate about the proposal shortly following the collection of signatures, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, a governmental body charged with investigating civil rights violations in the state of Michigan, concluded an investigation of MCRI in which they asserted that supporters of the MCRI had committed widespread and systematic racially-targeted fraud in their petition campaign to secure ballot access. [1] [2] The proponents of the initiative issued a multi-page refutation of the report, including a notation that it was never signed by the Commission and alleging misconduct by the Commission itself [3].

In September 2006, after opponents filed a federal lawsuit against the MCRI alleging fraud in the collection of petition signatures, a federal judge in Detroit denied an injunction to have the initiative barred from the ballot even after he declared that the voter fraud did in fact take place.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Federal Lawsuit Against MCRI

Oral arguments in a federal lawsuit charging MCRI and the State of Michigan with violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was heard on August 17, 2006 with attorneys presenting their closing arguments on the morning of August 18. The case was heard by U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Tarnow, who promised to rule on the matter by September 8, 2006, to give officials enough time to print up the ballot. During the first day of the hearing, hundreds of protesters picketed outside the courthouse chanting among other things, "Racist fraud, hell no! MCRI has got to go!"[4][5][6] The lawsuit was filed by Operation King's Dream, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Detroit City Council, American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, Michigan Legislative Black Caucus, Keep the Vote No Takover, AFSCME Locals 207, 312, and 2920, and UAW 2200 as well as several individual voters.[7] Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm submitted an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs.[8]

On August 29, 2006, the case was decided with Judge Tarnow, a Democratic judicial appointee, refusing to remove the initiative from the ballot.[9] However, Judge Tarnow declared that "MCRI engaged in systematic voter fraud by telling voters that were signing a petition supporting affirmative action." However, because the case was not decided on these grounds, this statement is legally characterized as "dicta"--judicial commentary that is not relevant to the outcome of a case. Tarnow also found Jennifer Gratz's (MCRI's executive director) testimony in the court to be evasive and misleading. His stated reason for refusing an injunction to remove the MCRI from the ballot was the MCRI "targeted all Michigan voters for deception without regard to race." He ruled that the Voting Rights Act was not violated because it "is not a general anti-voter fraud statue, but rather prohibits practices which result in unequal access to the political process because of race."

Luke Massie, national co-chair of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights & Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) announced that the plaintiffs will appeal Tarnow's decision to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, saying "It makes no sense to conclude there was fraud and allow the vote to go forward." The 6th Circuit rejected the appeal in mid-September.[citation needed]

[edit] Voting and Poll Results

As of November 8, 2006, Proposal 2 was declared to have passed by a margin of 58% to 42%, according to MichiganProposal2.org [10]. [Note: MichiganProposal2.org is a non-authoritative source that uses domain privacy and has been reinserted here repeatedly.] The last reported poll as of October 15, reported on by the Detroit News showed MCRI to have up to a 50-41 lead. In an Free Press-Local 4 (WDIV) Michigan poll conducted by Selzer & Co. Inc. of Des Moines between October 8 to October 11 of 643 likely voters, it was shown that 41% were in favor of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, while 44% opposed the measure, and 15% of the voter poll were undecided. The poll had a margin of error of 3.9% making the poll a statistical dead-heat. Another poll, from mid-September 2006, showed MCRI was up 48-37 with 15 percent undecided, with the pollster admitting that his previous polls had not used the exact language of the proposal until the Sept. poll.

[edit] Board of Canvassers Meeting

In July of 2005, the Michigan State Board of Canvassers declined to certify the MCRI proposal for Michigan's November 2006 ballot after hearing allegations that a significant number of signatures were obtained by telling supporters of affirmative action that the petition was likewise, in support of affirmative action. However, in October of the same year, the Michigan Court of Appeals ordered the board to certify the petitions.

On December 14, 2005, in Lansing, Michigan, the board's four members were attempting to vote on whether they would certify the petitions for the November ballot at a meeting attended by hundreds of Detroit high school students. The crowd began to shout "No voter fraud" until they got so loud that the members left the room adjourning until 2pm. Chanting, "They say Jim Crow! We say hell no!" the emotion-surged crowd of students continued in their civil disobedience until a table was overturned amidst the commotion and the Lansing police came in to control the situation.[11] Video of the situation can be seen here.[12]

After the protest, the election panel again failed to certify the petitions with a vote of 2-1, falling short of the required three votes. Republican board members Katherine Degrow and Lyn Banks voted in favor with Democrats Paul Mitchell voting no and Doyle O'Connor not voting.

The meeting received considerable media attention because of the protest. In the months following the controversial board meeting, both Mitchell and O'Connor resigned from the board and were fined $250 on contempt of court charges.[13] O'Connor later testified against the MCRI at the August 17 federal court hearing, relaying how he'd witnessed two African-American women circulating the anti-affirmative action petition in Detroit telling signers that it was in support of affirmative action. Proponents counter this claim by arguing that O'Connor, as a member of the Board of Canvassers, had failed to offer this testimony during Board meetings and waited until after the Board had decided and a lawsuit begun to relay his alleged testimony. Proponents suggest that O'Connor had a clear conflict of interest as a first-hand witness, and that he unethically failed to relay that information to the rest of the board and to MCRI officials and recuse himself from the decision-making process, and that his testimony as a result is simply not credible given that he waited so long to relay it.

[edit] "Preferential Treatment"

Proponents of the MCRI claim that the initiative will make illegal only those programs and policies, affecting university admissions, public employment, and contracting, that grant what they deem "preferential treatment" to minorities and women. These claims have been disputed by opponents who cite California's Proposition 209, alleging that the language of that proposal which outlawed all affirmative action policies and programs, and MCRI's language is nearly identical. Proponents counter this argument by arguing that while MCRI is nearly identical to California's amendment, neither MCRI or 209 "outlawed all" or any "affirmative action." They point to programs such as California's socio-economic indicators, outreach targeted at the 150 lowest scoring high schools, and traditional anti-discrimination enforcement as some among many race-neutral types of affirmative action.

Another incident serving as a contradiction of proponents' claims that the initiative will not ban all affirmative action programs occured during Jennifer Gratz' testimony during the federal court hearing against the MCRI. Attorney for Operation King's Dream, George Washington asked Gratz, executive director of the MCRI, to name an affirmative action program that wouldn't be banned if the initiative passed and she was unable to do so.[citation needed]

[edit] Post Election

On November 8, 2006, BAMN called a press conference announcing that they'd launched a second lawsuit against Proposal 2 in conjunction with United for Equality and Affirmative Action and Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, claiming that it violates both the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the First Amendment as affirmed by the Supreme Court decision, Grutter v. Bollinger.[citation needed]

That same day, about 2,000 students gathered on the diag at the University of Michigan where University President Mary Sue Coleman gave a speech in which she promised U-M would go to court to defend its efforts to promote diversity. Two weeks later, on November 21, Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell said he was considering having the city file a federal lawsuit to overturn Proposal 2.[citation needed]

The Detroit News has reported that most local legal experts expect that the legal challenges to Proposal 2 will fail.[1]

[edit] Notable Endorsers

Notable endorsers of the MCRI include:

[edit] Opposition

Notable opponents of the MCRI include:

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061110/POLITICS01/611100359&SearchID=73264549021179

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

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