News & Commentary

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (ACLU) commends Oakland County voters for embracing the ACLU’s Smart Justice campaign goals, which include ending mass incarceration and advancing racial justice in the criminal legal system.  Karen McDonald defeated Republican candidate Lin Goetz.  

With all the attention being placed on the presidential election and other high-profile races under way, there is an important civil liberties issue on the ballot that should not be overlooked. I’m talking about Proposal 2, which seeks to amend the Michigan Constitution to require that law enforcement agencies obtain a search warrant to access a person's electronic data and electronic communications. 

Making your voice heard at the ballot box matters. For a transgender person, voting can be intimidating and sometimes humiliating because poll workers often don't understand what it means to be transgender, and what the law says. The good news is that during this election season, transgender people, like other voters, have options available that allow them to vote several ways. The important thing is that you know what those options are, and what rights you have. 

When the ACLU of Michigan People Power Tour packs its virtual bags and rolls into Berrien County for an online event this Tuesday, voting rights and reforming the criminal legal system are expected to be high on the list of issues discussed in this Lake Michigan shoreline community. 

If, like me, you’ve been reading about the Trump Administration’s troubling attacks on the U.S. Postal Service and are concerned the cuts may be an attempt to suppress voting, I have good news for Michigan voters: You have options that will ensure your vote will be counted in this crucial election. 

“It was actually the first election I would’ve ever voted in, so you can imagine that fact amplified my disappointment,” she says. “I had hoped that the ballot would arrive on time.” But she, like thousands of other Michigan voters, needlessly had their ballots rejected. That's why we sued.

As each of us wrestle with our own anxieties and fears about the health and well-being of family and friends in this unsettling time, we are reminded of how closely connected we are to one another through our immediate communities and across the globe. We also recognize that in times of emergency, many people on the edges of society are often left behind.

The ACLU of Michigan filed a brief today urging the Michigan Supreme Court to reject the legislature’s attempt to undermine the will of the voters by removing citizen-led proposals from the ballot through an anti-democratic maneuver known as “adopt and amend.”

DETROIT – In response to voters overwhelmingly passing three progressive ballot initiatives last November (voting rights expansion, marijuana legalization, and anti-gerrymandering), the Republican-led legislature passed a law during its lame duck session that will make it extremely difficult to gather the petition signatures needed to get any future proposal on the statewide ballot. The most controversial provision in the new law, which Governor Rick Snyder signed, requires that no more than 15 percent of the signatures gathered for a ballot proposal can come from any one of the state's 14 congressional districts.