Less than 24 hours after voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to limit election spending in Michigan, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has filed a lawsuit to block it.
The non-profit, free-market think tank argues parts of the proposal violate the First Amendment. Its lawsuit asks a federal judge to block parts of the proposal, not overturn it entirely.
More than 80% of Michigan voters supported the measure in Tuesday’s election.
“We think that the law needs to be defined and its scope understood rather quickly,” said Patrick Wright, the Mackinac Center’s Vice President for Legal Affairs. “We don’t care to be on the receiving end of a criminal complaint, we want to make sure and understand what is and isn’t legal as soon as possible. And that applies for all 10 million Michigan citizens.”
The proposal would prohibit regulated state utility companies and their executives from donating to campaigns for many Michigan offices or political action committees. Wright said the Mackinac Center is not challenging that provision of Proposal 2.
Instead, the Center is asking a federal judge to prohibit the state from enforcing the proposal’s reporting requirements around “electioneering communications” within 100 days of an election.
The Mackinac Center argues in its lawsuit that, though it does not endorse candidates or issues, some of its research and advocacy could be labeled “electioneering communications” under the proposal, which would force the Center to disclose a donor list to the state.
“Mackinac has historically been free to discuss candidates within the context of its issue-focused advocacy,” the center argues in its complaint. “Now Mackinac will have to consider the risks and burdens from the disclosure requirements when deciding whether to refer to a candidate, even just indirectly, in its public communications. Mackinac will likely refrain from referring to some candidates to minimize the amount of disclosure required.”
The Mackinac Center argues the reporting provisions would require it to list the names of all of its supporters, violating their privacy.
It’s also asking a federal judge to block the state from forcing it to disclose its finances as a “political committee.”
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan by the Institute for Free Speech, which is representing the Mackinac Center.
