Michiganders for Money Out of Politics request to be named as defendants in lawsuit

A lawsuit against Proposal 2—also called Michiganders for Money Out of Politics—names government officials as defendants. That's something the group behind Proposal 2 wants to change through a legal process called intervening.

Proposal 2 passed with 81% of the vote and would prevent corporations and contractors with more than $250,000 in state contracts from contributing to political campaigns.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which is behind the lawsuit seeking to stop the proposal from taking effect, says limiting political donations violates free speech. 

"The proposal increases in an immense amount of speech related to elections, campaigns and politics that can now be regulated, criminalized and used as a partisan weapon," said Patrick Wright, the vice president for legal affairs with the Mackinac Center. 

Public utilities are also suing in federal court to prevent the ballot proposal from taking effect. 

The people behind Proposal 2—groups like Clean Water Action, Voters Not Politicians, and State Representative-Elect Joanna Whaley— said they should be part of the defense against the suit. 

Their lawyer was unavailable on Wednesday, but in a statement, Samuel Bagenstos wrote, "The language of Proposal 2 was carefully crafted with constitutionality in mind, and we are well prepared for this expected legal challenge. We intend to vigorously defend the will of Michiganders who overwhelmingly approved this measure just one week ago." 

But Wright argues the groups with Proposal 2 don't have standing to participate in the legal case.  

"We'll argue that these people don't have any kind of special ability to participate. They can file what are known as amicus briefs; they can tell the court their opinion and why they think it's important, but they don't get the ability to come into the party, seek depositions, be involved in settlement negotiations, things like that," he said.

According to the language in Proposal 2, the new law will take effect 10 days after it's certified by the Board of State Canvassers. That means, barring any legal pause placed by a judge, it will take effect in early December. 

"We haven't filed our motion for preliminary injunction yet. We're we're going to be doing that hopefully this week," Wright said.