Update: Tea-Publican tyranny in Michigan – waiting for the courts to decide the fate of democracy

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

On Thursday the Michigan Court of Appeals heard oral arguments regarding the petitions for a referendum to repeal Michigan's emergency manager law which has been used to impose martial law in Michigan, dissolving duly elected town councils and school boards and putting them under the control of an unelected emergency manager possessing dictatorial powers, appointed by the governor.

Michigan Live reports Court of Appeals hears emotional, technical arguments in emergency manager ballot dispute:

Attorney Herb Sanders choked up this morning as he delivered a closing statement before the Michigan Court of Appeals in Detroit, his momentary silence contrasting with the chants of protestors 14 floors below.

Sanders, representing the Stand Up For Democracy coalition, urged the court to reverse a decision by the state Board of Canvassers, which kept a referendum to repeal Michigan's controversial emergency manager law off the November ballot because of the font size used on petitions.

"This case is about philosophy and how we're going to govern in Michigan," Sanders told the judges. "You can accept their philosophy, which is to make it difficult for people to petition their government, or you can uphold the Constitution of Michigan and the Constitution of the United States for government by the people, for the people and of the people."

But the board's 2-2 deadlock vote was not based on emotion, according to attorney John Pirich, who represents the group that challenged the emergency manager petitions. And it wasn't based on the number of signatures collected, he said, acknowledging more than 200,000 residents signed the petitions.

"The question is compliance with a mandatory provision of the election code," Pirich told the court.

State law indicates that petition headers "shall" utilize 14-point boldfaced type. Stand Up For Democracy says it did use the correct size in a Calibri font, but the Secretary of State deemed the header too small after measurement.

"These procedures and provisions have been articulated for a long enough period that people know what they have to do," Pirich said, pointing out that the Secretary of State allows groups to submit petitions for pre-approval.

But Sanders argued that the coalition was well within its rights to distribute the petitions without pre-approval from the state, noting that the group submitted an affidavit from its printer acknowledging the use of size 14 font.

He also cited two cases — in Bloomfield and Meridian townships — in which the court ruled that minor technical deficiencies are less important than "permitting the people to vote and express their will on any proposal subject to election." Both those cases were decided after an election, however, not before. [The "substantial compliance" doctrine.]

Michigan State Professor Chris Corneal confirmed via affidavit this week that he told Director of Elections Chris Thomas in an email that "it is a pretty good guess that Calibri Bold at 14 pt" was used on the petitions.

But because the Secretary of State did not present that analysis in its report to the Board of Canvassers — later citing a one-day deadline and the indefinite language of Corneal's statement — it was not part of today's appeal hearing. [He conveniently forgot.]

* * *

Sanders said after the hearing that he expects the court to rule at some point in the next week, and if the ruling is not to his liking, he'll attempt to take his case to the Michigan Supreme Court.

"We'll fight it until we can't fight it anymore."

h/t ghraphic Electablog