Reproductive Freedom for All v. Board of State Canvassers

In January 2022, Reproductive Freedom for All (RFFA) partnered with several organizations, including Planned Parenthood of Michigan and the ACLU of Michigan to amend the Michigan State Constitution and guarantee reproductive freedom through a ballot initiative.  

Michigan law required the initiative's supporters to obtain at least 425,059 signatures from registered Michigan voters. After accounting for duplicate signatures and other disqualifying errors, a total of 596,379 valid signatures in favor of adding the amendment to the November 2022 ballot were gathered. 

Despite the signatures far exceeding the requirement, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers refused to certify the proposition. The Board of State Canvassers is a remnant of Michigan’s 1850 constitution, created to handle election-related administrative duties. The Board—made up of 2 Democratic and 2 Republican members—split 2-2 on party lines when voting on certifying the petition. In justifying their votes against certification, the Republican members of the Board argued the words on the ballot proposition were placed too close together and that the spaces in between the words were too small, making it difficult to read the language of the proposition. 

Following this refusal to certify, RFFA filed a petition for immediate mandamus relief in the Michigan Supreme Court. RFFA contended the Board’s authority extended only to approving the petition form and signatures, the number and validity of which were not disputed and compliant with Michigan election law. Thus, according to RFFA, the Board’s refusal to certify RFFA’s petition violated the Michigan Constitution of 1963 and Michigan state law.  

The League of Women Voters of Michigan (“LWV Michigan”) and allied organizations filed an amicus brief supporting RFFA on September 6, 2022. The brief asserted the Board’s sole duty concerning certifying the petition was to determine the sufficiency of the petition’s form and whether it had received sufficient signatures to be placed on the ballot. This role, according to the League and its allies, was ministerial and did not include judging the merits of the ballot initiative, its words, or its spacing. 

LWV Michigan and its partners also asserted that there were no requirements for spacing, readability, or clarity, among other types of formatting, for state constitutional amendments voted on by the people. The brief pointed out that the legislature had never prescribed such measures when it could have done so. Finally, the amici pointed to several instances in which courts refused to invalidate petitions or constitutional amendments because of omitted sentences or allegations of irregular wording.  

On September 8, 2022, in a 5-2 decision, the court ordered the Board of State Canvassers to certify the petition as sufficient by September 9, 2022, and place it on the November 2022 ballot.  

On November 8, 2022, Michigan voters amended the state constitution, voting to protect reproductive rights by a fourteen-point margin. 

LWV Michigan was represented in this matter by Mark Brewer and Goodman Acker PC.