Robert J. Danhof, Retired judge, Michigan Court of Appeals
This summer marked the 51st anniversary of the day 144 people elected from all across Michigan convened publicly in Lansing for a constitutional convention. The document lays out the specific powers and functions of state government, explains the mechanisms by which our government is to function and, most importantly, protects the rights of Michigan residents.
Voters ratified the Constitution in the spring of 1963 and for five decades it has stood the test of time.
While every election season brings one attempt or another to amend our Constitution, this year is shaping up quite differently. Five different special interest groups have placed proposed constitutional amendments on the November ballot, the largest number in the last 30 years.
Several of these proposals should give Michigan voters great pause because with each day it becomes more clear that special interest groups are attempting to use the Constitution for their own financial benefit.
For instance, out-of-state corporations are funding a move to lock the state’s energy policy into the Constitution — at great financial benefit to their owners and shareholders. Meanwhile, the Service Employees International Union is attempting to use the Constitution to force the unionization of Michigan residents who care at home for ill and infirmed family members — a move that would swell the union’s political coffers with millions of dollars in skimmed dues.
Both of these proposals violate the spirit of our Constitution, hijacking our most important governing document to enrich a few at the expense of many.
But perhaps most troubling is the hijacking attempt by a number of Michigan’s prominent labor organizations through Proposal 2. While collective bargaining rights are an important issue and one fully worthy of a vigorous public debate, this proposal being financed by the state’s labor bosses is deceptive and far reaching, flying in the face and against the spirit of Michigan’s Constitution.
Under the petition, the legislature would no longer be permitted to modify teacher tenure laws, grant veterans a preference in hiring and appointments to state positions, or bring taxpayer funded public employee fringe benefits in line with the private sector, among potentially countless other changes. The proposal’s supporters themselves admit their proposal would potentially overturn hundreds of state laws, a fact that was hidden from petition signers.
Shockingly, when asked which other laws were among the hundreds the proposal would overturn, the lawyer who drafted the proposal said voters would simply have to “guess.”
Voters deserve better than being asked to “guess” what they are putting in their Constitution. In fact, the state Constitution ratified over 50 years ago was designed to demand better.
Making these confusing and ambiguous changes through a ballot proposal runs contrary to the spirit and intent of our Constitution. The Constitution was not crafted to empower special interest groups to undertake a massive revision of Michigan’s Constitution and its laws by concealing its real purpose in a Trojan horse deceptively labeled a “constitutional amendment.” The Constitution was and is meant to be a blueprint for governance, not a vehicle for legislation.
This November residents will be asked to cast a vote on a number of ballot proposals but they will also be asked to make a much larger decision. Their vote will determine whether Michigan’s Constitution matters or whether it should be auctioned to the highest bidder.
We all have a responsibility to defend Michigan’s Constitution. I encourage voters to vote no on these desperately flawed proposals. Our Constitution has never been and should never be for sale.
