Mich. government overhaul backers appealing ballot initiative denial

LANSING, Mich. - Proponents of a Michigan ballot measure that would cut judges' pay 15 percent and eliminate some of their positions is challenging an appeals court decision this week that blocks the proposal from the Nov. 4 ballot.

A three-judge appeals court panel on Aug. 22 said the proposal has a "reach and expanse never before seen" in Michigan constitutional amendments.

Judges Patrick Meter, Bill Schuette and William Whitbeck on Wednesday ordered state election officials to not place the measure on the ballot.

Reform Michigan Government Now is asking the state Supreme Court to hold an emergency hearing on the proposal so county elections officials have time to put the measure on their ballots.

For more on this story, go to Legal Newsline.com

Mich. reform group ask for additional recusals on ballot initiative

LANSING, Mich. - Proponents of a Michigan ballot measure that would cut judges' pay and eliminate some of their positions are asking the state Court of Appeals to block some judges from hearing challenges to the proposal.

Reform Michigan Government Now says seven of the Appeals Court judges should be disqualified from the case because they could lose their judgeships if the measure passes in November.Additionally, the measure would eliminate two state Supreme Court justice positions, while 10 judgeships would be added at the circuit court level.

For more on this story, go to Legal Newsline

Photo: Michigan Judge William Whitbeck sat on the three-judge panel that recently heard a motion by Reform Michigan Government Now to have potential appeal's court judges disqualified from ruling on the group's proposed ballot inititive to trim elected officials which includes judges.

Property rights: The Achilles Heel for GOP electoral success in November

by Steve Greenhut

One of the guilty pleasures I expect to partake of later this year is watching the Democratic electoral tsunami obliterate Republicans in the November election. It's not because I often agree with Democrats, who manage to get almost everything wrong, but nothing but a disaster can shake any sense into a GOP that, as one prominent Republican told me, has "engaged in a wholesale abandonment of its limited-government principles."

The California GOP can't figure out its irrelevance, and the Republican governor insists that he is protecting the "little guy" by taxing, borrowing and spending on an even grander scale than his Democratic predecessor. GOP legislators are busy sending out hit pieces in the primary, swearing to do everything short of setting up machine-gun turrets on the Southern border to keep out illegal immigrants, even though no legislative candidate will have any influence whatsoever on immigration policy.

But for all this cluelessness and pandering, the state GOP and its allies in the business community have been unable to unite behind a core pro-freedom position – one that's popular among Californians of all parties and all ethnic and demographic groups. It's the issue of property rights and, in particular, the narrower matter of eminent-domain reform.

For more on this op/ed piece, go to The Orange County Register