Breaking News: Michigan Supreme Court Rejects BAMN Appeal

My colleague, Diane Carey, has just sent me the following information:


MICHIGAN CIVIL RIGHTS INITIATIVE
NEWS

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
7/13/06

Contact: Doug Tietz
(269) 369-1914

MI Supreme Court Rejects Civil Rights Commission Report
Justice says: “It is not for the judiciary to decide”
Today Jennifer Gratz, Executive Director, of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) released the following statement regarding the Michigan Supreme Court’s 5 to 2 rejection of Chairman Bernstein’s Michigan Civil Rights Commission’s accusations of fraud.
The Court overwhelming voted in support of MCRI’s position stating: “It is not for judiciary to decide”. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) believes that Mark Bernstein’s Civil Rights Commission has been a front for the organizations opposing the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.
“We have expected from day one that Mark Bernstein and his commission have abused tax payer money. Therefore it is not a surprise that the Michigan Supreme Court has refused to listen to the arguments placed in front of them by Chairman Mark Bernstein and his Committee,” said Gratz.
“It is tough to take seriously any of Mark Bernstein’s ‘unbiased’ work especially after he held a fundraiser for One United Michigan just 17 days after he released his ‘unbiased report,” said Gratz.
“MCRI is happy to see that the Michigan Supreme Court has the wisdom to look beyond the daily political whims of Mark Bernstein’s so-called Civil Rights Commission and support the basic concept of democracy – let the people vote.”
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative Committee (MCRI), a Michigan-based Ballot Question Committee, is dedicated to giving the people of Michigan the opportunity to end preferential treatment based on race, gender, ethnicity, or national origin by State or local governments. MCRI will make Michigan a place of equal opportunity for all, not a State that uses discrimination as a tool to create “diversity.” Achieving “diversity” should never be an excuse to discriminate!

Paid for with regulated funds by the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative Committee
PO Box 18243 Lansing MI 48901 517-699-2582 www.michigancivilrights.org


Diane Carey adds that if you read the opinion of the court in full it is "...Interesting that the dissent says that voters are responsible to read and understand what they are signing, but absurdly says that if the voter doesn't live up to this, then the circulator is somehow responsible to compensate. When did that become the case? When did one person's shirking of rights and responsibility
become another person's obligation to act in some particular way?"

My comment is simply that BAMN is either grasping at straws or doing anything it can, including filing expensive to fight and time-consuming appeals, to make it appear as if the courts are biased or just plain wrong when in fact it knows that the decision will not change. BAMN knows that while issues are on appeal many people will assume that they have not been decided. It counts on this kind of confusion to rally its supporters. This seeming appeal for justice and law is hypocritical. BAMN proponents do not seem to consider a decision of the court binding unless it has been decided as they wish.