U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear MI citizen amendment proposal case
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case on whether or not citizen ballot proposals could amend the Michigan Constitution regulating federal elections, one previously dismissed by a lower court.
In 2023, a group of state legislators filed a complaint in Lindsey v. Whitmer, claiming that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson violated the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution by adopting amendments (Proposal 18-3 and ) regulating federal elections without the state legislature's participation.
The Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution reads:
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.
These lawmakers called for a declaratory judgment that allowing a petition and ballot proposal to amend the Constitution regarding federal elections without the state legislature's approval or participation violated their constitutional rights. They also sought to have the 2018 and 2022 constitutional amendments rendered null and void, as they were adopted through the petition and ballot proposal process.
In April 2024, a federal judge dismissed the complaint, saying the lawmakers did not have enough standing and that their complaints were too generalized, meaning that the court had '' under of the U.S. Constitution, which confines the authority of federal courts to only cases.
Later that year, the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed that decision, and, Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, one of the named defendants in the case, weighed in.
'The U.S. Supreme Court's action has rightly upheld the power of Michigan voters to amend the state constitution and preserves the important checks and balances in our democratic process,' said Benson.
You can read the petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, which also contains background information on Lindsey v. Whitmer, below.
20250320172442430_24-PetitionDownload
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Democratic congressman steps up his work to pull Musk toward his party
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., talked with one of Elon Musk's 'senior confidants' on Thursday about whether the ex-DOGE leader, now feuding with Donald Trump, might want to help the Democratic Party in the midterms. 'Having Elon speak out against the irrational tariff policy, against the deficit exploding Trump bill, and the anti-science and anti-immigrant agenda can help check Trump's unconstitutional administration,' Khanna told Semafor on Friday. 'I look forward to Elon turning his fire against MAGA Republicans instead of Democrats in 2026.' Khanna, who has known Musk for more than a decade, has long argued that Democrats unwisely pushed him away from their party. Now the world's wealthiest man, Musk benefited from the Obama administration's clean energy investments, defending them against Republican attacks in the 2012 election. He supported Democratic nominees for president until 2024, when he endorsed Trump for president — and spent more to help elect him than he had for any Democrat. Since Musk began attacking the Trump-backed GOP tax bill as an 'abomination' this week, Democrats in Congress have amplified his criticism and even adopted some of his language. But few besides Khanna have gone as far as talking about bringing Musk back into the Democratic tent; most Democrats are furious at Musk's DOGE work to dismantle parts of the federal government and are confident that he is a political liability for Trump. 'How great is it that that dipshit Elon Musk is out?' Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said at last Friday's Democratic fish fry in South Carolina, after Musk left the administration. 'The decisions he was making were literally killing people, so he could dance around and act like he was doing something.' Musk was a 'historic villain' whose unpopularity had helped Wisconsin Democrats win the state's April 1 supreme court race by 10 points, said state Democratic Party chairman Ben Wikler. At their 'Fighting Oligarchy' rallies, the largest political events since Trump was sworn in, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., torched Musk as the embodiment of what Democrats and fair-minded Americans should be against. Some Democrats believe that Musk could have stayed in their coalition, had they paid him a little more respect — specifically, had Joe Biden invited Musk to the White House electric vehicle summit early in his presidency. Khanna is in that camp. Others counter that the party's overall shift leftward after 2016 alienated Musk, who was never coming back. He clashed with Elizabeth Warren ('Senator Karen') over the idea of a wealth tax, and with progressives over the 'woke mind virus' that he blamed for the gender transition of his third child. That's the camp where most Democrats are, although some — like Walz — see this as a political opportunity. Still, the idea of an irate multibillionaire making problems for Republicans is enticing to plenty of Democrats, who have not been above meddling in GOP primaries to help weaker candidates win nominations. What if Musk made Republicans burn money to defend their incumbents, as he slammed them with TV ads? That's all theoretical, as Musk said last month that he would do 'a lot less' political spending now that he'd achieved his goal of electing Trump. If Musk is sincere about the political views he posts about on X, he is completely at odds with the Democratic Party, and the best they could hope for is him making trouble for Republicans out of spite. In Politico, Holly Otterbein and Lisa Kashinsky about the Democrats who hoped that Musk would have a 'villain-to-hero' arc, and help them beat Trump. But Khanna was the only voice in the party who fully believed it could happen.
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The Latest Escalation Between Russia and Ukraine Isn't Changing the Course of the War
The empire strikes back. Last week, Ukrainian spies destroyed a large chunk of Russia's fearsome nuclear bomber fleet using small, smuggled drones. On Friday, Russia retaliated with some of the largest air raids against Ukraine to date. The Russian air raids killed eight Ukrainians and wounded 46. They also sent the message that, as Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, the current round of peace talks is over. On the whole, however, neither the Ukrainian guerrilla operation nor the old-fashioned Russian retaliation changed the course of the war. Russia has a slight, but not decisive, advantage. Russian forces have been gaining ground in Ukraine at a slow rate and high cost. Although they have continued to suffer from manpower shortages, Ukrainian forces have managed to inflict greater losses on the Russian side. The human butchery on the front lines can continue for the time being. Of course, the attack on the Russian nuclear bomber fleet matters a lot for the global balance of power. And Ukraine has grown quite bold at attacking Russian interests outside of Ukraine. Ukrainian operatives have reportedly blown up the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea, captured Russian mercenaries in Sudan, enabled Tuareg rebels to kill dozens more Russian mercenaries in Mali, and trained Syrian rebels to use drones against the former government of Bashar Assad, a Russian ally. Rather than changing the balance of forces on the battlefield, these moves serve two psychological purposes. On one hand, they blunt Putin's confidence that he can simply wait Ukraine out. U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly told European leaders last month that Putin doesn't want to end the war because he believes Russia is winning. On the other hand, Ukrainian operations help demonstrate Ukraine's usefulness to its foreign backers. Even more than having to justify the financial cost of U.S. aid, over $128 billion in total, Ukraine has to compete for scarce physical resources with other theaters of war. (Late last month, the U.S. military decided to move anti-drone proximity fuzes from Ukraine to American forces in the Middle East.) And Trump has made no secret of his belief that Ukraine is a freeloader that doesn't "have the cards." After the drone attack, Ukrainian spokespeople bragged that they do, in fact, hold "the cards." The Trump administration was reportedly very impressed by the "badass" Ukrainian attack. As one White House adviser told Axios, "you've got a chihuahua inflicting some real damage on a much bigger dog." Feats of reckless defiance might prove more effective than the half-baked scheme to market Ukraine's non-existent mineral wealth to Trump. Many political figures have misread Trump as someone who enjoys flattery. But he does not necessarily respect those who grovel before him, whether it's domestic politicians or allied heads of state, and he does enjoy winning over adversaries. Congress is also getting ready to impose new economic sanctions on Russia, something that Trump has threatened to do over the past few months. The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House is fighting to "water down" the legislation, but the dispute seems to be more about keeping the president's options open to lifting sanctions than the strength of the pressure. Unlike in the Middle East, where U.S. enemies are relatively weak and American partners are extremely reliant on U.S. support, the United States does not have an easy "off" switch for the Russian-Ukraine war. Europe provides Ukraine with slightly more aid than the United States. Although U.S. aid to Ukraine has been massive—and irreplaceable in the areas of air defense and intelligence—Ukraine can fight on for quite a while with European support and its own domestic capabilities. "Both sides are suffering before you pull them apart, before they're able to be pulled apart," Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. "You see in hockey, you see it in sports. The referees let them go for a couple of seconds, let them go for a little while before you pull them apart." That's a lot of suffering in the meantime. A recent estimate put overall casualties of the war—which includes both wounded and killed—at 1.2 million troops since 2022. And the United Nations has recorded 45,000 civilian casualties in Ukraine throughout the war. Each of those numbers represents a family torn apart forever. However depressing the situation sounds, the fact that neither side has a clear path to victory means that they will both have to come back to the negotiating table. It's in America's interest for this war to end as quickly as possible, and as other conflicts show, the U.S. can do a lot of good as a distant but powerful mediator. The post The Latest Escalation Between Russia and Ukraine Isn't Changing the Course of the War appeared first on
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Clean energy tax cuts in reconciliation budget would stall renewable energy projects in Iowa
Wind turbines along west-bound Interstate 80 on March 29, 2025. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch) Clean energy advocates said Iowa stands to lose jobs, manufacturing facilities, renewable energy project expansions and face more expensive utility bills if Congress passes the budget reconciliation bill as is. Many of these credits were extended via the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, which put them under attack from Republican lawmakers opposed to the green policies. Renewable energy advocates say continued investment into wind, solar and other clean energy sources, regardless of environmental impact, is vital to meeting growing energy demands. Nearly three-fifths of Iowa's total electricity generation comes from renewable sources, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which also reports Iowa is one of the top states for solar and wind energy generation. Since 2019, Iowa has generated more electricity via wind than from coal and continues to grow its solar production. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Kristina Costa, who formerly worked at the White House implementing the Inflation Reduction Act's energy and climate policies, said the IRA established at least 10 years of tax credits to support clean energy industries, which launched new projects and expanded the industry. 'The House bill that the Republicans passed explodes that entire paradigm,' Costa said. 'It functions as a full repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act.' Costa, during a Thursday press conference with Climate Power, said the bill 'really radically' changes how clean electricity developers can plan and develop their projects, by eliminating the ability to 'lock in' a tax treatment at the start of construction. 'This is going to create a lot of uncertainty for project developers,' Costa said. 'It's going to raise financing costs for project developers pretty considerably … but it also just means that fewer projects will end up qualifying for the credits.' Clean energy tax credits impact transportation, power generation, industry and construction and create incentives for projects like renewable vehicle fuels, solar, wind, nuclear power generation and more. Per the reconciliation bill text as it passed the House May 22, the bill would terminate clean vehicle credits, residential energy efficiency credits, hydrogen fuel credits and place restrictions on credits for clean electricity production, zero-emission nuclear energy production and other sectors. Some of the restrictions include strict construction timeline requirements, like beginning construction within 60 days of enactment, and bringing the projects online by 2028. Costa said these timelines create an 'incredibly sharp cliff' for developers to work within for projects that often take years and can face lengthy setbacks from supply chain disruptions. The budget bill also has extensive language pertaining to and restricting projects that have any ties to foreign entities. Costa said these restrictions are 'very complicated, unworkable, Byzantine requirements' that impose 'a lot of red tape' for developers and would have the 'immediate effect of freezing the market.' She said it would require companies to understand where 'literally every nut, bolt, screw and wire in a project they are building comes from' and certify that it does not have any ties to China or to Russia. Costa said gutting these policies will lead to increased energy costs for American customers. A study from Clean Energy Buyers Association analyzed the impact of removing just two clean energy tax credit programs, and found it would cause an average increase of 7% for residential electricity costs. Part of the problem is an anticipated 2% energy demand increase nationwide, in 2025 and again in 2026, according to the EIA. Much of that energy demand is a result of battery manufacturing and data centers. Iowa alone has roughly 100 data centers, which is one of the largest concentrations in the midwest. 'The near term additions to the grid are going to come from renewables, or they're supposed to come from renewables under the current tax regime,' Costa said. 'That is why you would see these consumer electricity price increases.' A spokesperson for Alliant Energy, one of Iowa's utility companies with significant investments in solar and wind energy, said the company is monitoring the bill. A spokesperson for MidAmerican Energy declined to comment on the pending legislation. Earlier this year, NextEra Energy proposed restarting its Duane Arnold Energy Center, a nuclear plant near Palo. A representative from the company did not answer questions about the impact the Republican-sponsored bill would have on the Iowa project. A study from The Nature Conservancy found that clean energy tax credits in Iowa alone would add more than $238 million in annual economic value to Iowa, if left intact through 2032. Repeal of the credits would also affect associated manufacturing companies, like those that make solar panel parts, or wind turbine blades. Analysis from Climate Power found 400,000 jobs nationwide would be in jeopardy without the tax credits supporting the expanding industry. Joe Zimsen, an Iowa resident with 10 years of construction experience in the wind industry, said the IRA created a 'tremendous amount of hope' among his colleagues in the industry that has now 'disintegrated' because of budget bill. Zimsen formerly worked on wind projects near Grinnell, but now works for Renew Energy as a construction manager for off-shore wind projects. He and his family still live in Iowa, and he urged Iowa senators to oppose the bill as it is currently written. 'This policy of killing offshore and onshore wind and solar energy is going to have tremendous detrimental effects and set us back another 10 to 15 years behind our competitors, like China and Europe,' Zimsen said. 'We can't afford to do that.' U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Tuesday that wind energy incentives have been at risk since 2015 when he worked to extend them, and he said he senators would try to find a 'compromise' on them again, Radio Iowa reported. But, the so-called, 'big beautiful bill' comprises much more than just clean energy concerns, which Grassley said means one issue can't 'stand in the way' of the rest of the bill. U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst's office did not respond to requests for comment. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
