Michigan's Supreme Court ruled Thursday evening that the state's residents can vote this fall on adding abortion rights to the state constitution. The ruling ends a legal effort by GOP officials to prevent the referendum because of the word spacing in the petition.
Many of those against the proposal argued against abortion but also asked the board to vote against the proposal because of typographical errors. Two groups earlier this month filed challenges to the form, citing minimal spacing throughout the text of the language
The Supreme Court's ruling: What? No.
"It is undisputed that there are sufficient signatures to warrant certification. The only challenge to the petition is in regard to whether there is sufficient space between certain words of the text of the proposed amendment. MCL 168.482(3) requires only that "[t]he full text of the amendment so proposed must follow the summary and be printed in 8-point type." The "full text" of the amendment is present: regardless of the existence or extent of the spacing, all of the words remain and they remain in the same order, and it is not disputed that they are printed in 8-point type," the court wrote in its order
The not-so-deep reason the GOP doesn't want people voting on abortion is because the subject brings them to polls where they'll also be voting for congresspersons and local officials.
