I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
The California Supreme Court has agreed to hear legal motions brought by the ACLU, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Lambda Legal Defense Fund to prevent the controversial marriage amendment from taking effect. The amendment was approved Nov. 4 by 52 percent of California voters, but the legal action argues the passage of the amendment was a violation of the Constitution it sought to amend.
Lambda Legal issued the following description of the basis of the lawsuit in a press release today:
The lawsuits allege that, on its face, Proposition 8 is an improper
revision rather than an amendment of the California Constitution because,
in its very title, which was “Eliminates the right to marry for same-sex
couples,” the initiative eliminated an existing right only for a targeted
minority. If permitted to stand, Proposition 8 would be the first time an
initiative has successfully been used to change the California Constitution
to take way an existing right only for a particular group. Such a change
would defeat the very purpose of a constitution and fundamentally alter the
role of the courts in protecting minority rights. According to the
California Constitution, such a serious revision of our state Constitution
cannot be enacted through a simple majority vote, but must first be
approved by two-thirds of the Legislature.
The court refused to grant a stay, but did set an expedited briefing schedule for the case. The court set off the move to amend the state Constitution when it ruled earlier this year that gays could get married in the state.
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