DOJ Backs Lawsuit Against UMichigan for Infringing on Free Speech

The stifling of speech on college campuses has become an issue at virtually every institution of higher learning across the country. On Monday, Attorney General Sessions and the Justice Department took a major step in the fight for preserving the First Amendment rights of college students everywhere. 

The Department of Justice today filed a Statement of Interest in Speech First, Inc., v. Schlissel in the Eastern District of Michigan. The plaintiff, Speech First, a nationwide organization dedicated to defending civil liberties, alleges that the University of Michigan has adopted policies prohibiting and punishing speech protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments.  Speech First alleges that the University of Michigan’s policies on “harassment,” “bullying,” and “bias” are so vague and overbroad as to prompt students to limit their speech out of fear that they might be subject to disciplinary sanction, including “individual education” or “restorative justice” at the hands of the University’s Bias Response Team. 

The United States’ Statement of Interest argues that the University of Michigan’s Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities, which prohibits “harassment,” “bullying,” and “bias,” is unconstitutional because it offers no clear, objective definitions of the violations.  Instead, the Statement refers students to a wide array of “examples of various interpretations that exist for the terms,” many of which depend on a listener’s subjective reaction to speech. 

According to the Plaintiff free speech organization Speech First, the speech policies of the University of Michigan make it far too easy for conservative speech to be silenced. Virtually any student could get another in trouble with the university through a claim of “harassment” or “bullying” just because they disagree with certain political opinions. Higher education should be a place that stimulates differing opinions and intellectual curiosity, not to place arbitrary limitations on certain viewpoints. Acting Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio shared this very sentiment in issuing the following statement:

“Freedom of speech and expression on the American campus are under attack. This Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is committed to promoting and defending Americans’ first freedom at public universities.”

The RNLA commends the Department of Justice’s fight to preserve our First Amendment rights at the University of Michigan and other colleges and universities across our nation.

Senate Democrats Stalling Hearing for Conservative Justice Joan Larsen from Michigan

Senate Democrats are using an unprecedented technique to stall the hearing of Justice Joan Larsen of Michigan to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Senate Judiciary Committee has not taken up the nomination of Larsen because the two Senators from Michigan, Democrats Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, have not signaled their approval according to The Detroit News.

Under Senate tradition, the committee doesn't hold hearings for a judicial nominee until his or her home-state senators submit "blue slips" showing their consent to advancing the nomination. 

“What we have seen is that these senators [Stabenow and Peters] are attempting to use Senate procedure to just block Larsen’s appointment altogether,” Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. 

 Severino added:

That’s a real shame. She is highly qualified, she was a very popular and accomplished professor at the University of Michigan, she’s a great Supreme Court justice for the state of Michigan, and was just re-elected by the citizens of the state that these senators claim to represent. This is something that is manifestly not in the interest of their own constituents; it’s truly just plain politics. 

Justice Larsen's many accomplishments in Michigan. She clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Justice Larsen also caught the eye of President Trump, who had her on the short list of potential Supreme Court nominees during his Presidential campaign. Despite her qualifications, Democrats are playing politics to refuse a highly-qualified Judicial appointee.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley could still intervene despite the stalling. Elizabeth Slattery, a legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal in an email:

Grassley may decide to put a time limit on when senators must return a blue slip, otherwise assuming they do not object. He could treat blue slips for appeals court nominees differently than those for district court nominees, since customarily, home-state senators have played a larger role in selecting district court nominees. He could also jettison blue slips entirely—although that’s unlikely to happen. 

It's unfortunate that Senate Democrats are using these tactics to stall a very well qualified appointee to the federal bench. Senate Democrats should look beyond party politics and provide a timely up-or-down vote for these well-qualified nominees to help fill the 150+ judicial appointee vacancies.

[Note: This blog post was first published on Monday, July 17, 2017.]

ICYMI - Michigan Recount Revealed Serious Issues in Detroit

Jill Stein's unsuccessful effort to force a recount of Michigan's presidential election did reveal a serious problem in many precincts: a discrepancy between the number of voters who checked in and the number of ballots.  The problem was greatest in Wayne County, where Detroit is located, but also occurred in other counties.

Voting machines in more than one-third of all Detroit precincts registered more votes than they should have during last month’s presidential election, according to Wayne County records prepared at the request of The Detroit News. 

Detailed reports from the office of Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett show optical scanners at 248 of the city’s 662 precincts, or 37 percent, tabulated more ballots than the number of voters tallied by workers in the poll books. Voting irregularities in Detroit have spurred plans for an audit by Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s office, Elections Director Chris Thomas said Monday. . . . 

Overall, state records show 10.6 percent of the precincts in the 22 counties that began the retabulation process couldn’t be recounted because of state law that bars recounts for unbalanced precincts or ones with broken seals. 

The problems were the worst in Detroit, where discrepancies meant officials couldn’t recount votes in 392 precincts, or nearly 60 percent. And two-thirds of those precincts had too many votes. 

The Detroit Free Press concluded that the discrepancies were likely due to human or machine error, not fraud:

In 248 precincts, there were a total of 782 more votes tabulated by voting machines than the number of voters listed as picking up ballots in the precincts’ poll books. That makes up just three-tenths of 1% of the total 248,211 votes that were logged in Detroit for the presidential election. That number was far too small to swing the statewide election results, even in this year’s especially tight race that saw a Republican win Michigan for the first time since George Bush in 1988. . . . 

The Free Press analysis found there were 248 precincts in Detroit where voting machines tabulated more Election Day votes than people who were counted as checking in to vote. The affected precincts represent 37% of the city's 662 precincts. 

Most of those overages were by small amounts — on average about 3 votes — with the largest being 12 votes in a single precinct. Those small numbers, which add up to 782 total spread out across more than 200 precincts, tend to point to human or machine malfunction as the culprit, rather than widespread fraud. 

In 158 precincts, the number of ballots tabulated by the optical-scanning voting machines was inexplicably less than the number of people who signed in to vote. At least 362 ballots were not counted in those precincts, even though the voters had been listed in poll books. 

Whether due to fraud or human/machine error, these discrepancies show that Michigan has a serious problem of election administration that it needs to address, whether through better procedures, better training, better equipment, or all of the above.  To their credit, Michigan's Secretary of State and local election officials are taking these problems seriously and seeking to identify the sources of the discrepancies and address them.

Threats and Intimidation Against Electors

Yesterday, the Electoral College convened and voted to make Donald Trump the next President of the United States.  In most presidential election years, this process barely makes the news.  But this year, amidst celebrity calls for electors to abandon the person for whom they were pledged to vote, electors have been threatened with mountains of harassing emails, voicemails, and letters and even death threats:

The nation’s 538 presidential electors have been thrust into the political foreground like never before in American history. In the aftermath of a uniquely polarizing presidential contest, the once-anonymous electors are squarely in the spotlight, targeted by death threats, harassing phone calls and reams of hate mail. One Texas Republican elector said he’s been bombarded with more than 200,000 emails.

Just a few disturbing examples:

• By mid-November, 22-year-old Michigan elector Michael Banerian had already received hundreds of emails: “You have people saying ‘you’re a hateful bigot, I hope you die,’ ” he said. “I’ve had people talk about shoving a gun in my mouth and blowing my brains out. And I’ve received dozens and dozens of those emails. Even the non-threatening-my-life emails are very aggressive.”
• Every elector in Pennsylvania was assigned a plainclothes state police officer for protection: Thousands of emails land in their inboxes every day. Copies of the Federalist Papers and other books urging political courage are being mailed to their homes. They are even getting phone calls in the middle of the night.
• One elector in Arkansas had to file a police report due to "continual threats."

The duties, selection, and voting requirements of electors in each state are established by state law, and the electors who voted for Trump yesterday were fulfilling their legal duties.  To their credit, most Democratic leaders have decried the threats, but the Department of Justice has been strangely silent.  Such threats against electors likely fall under the prohibition against voter intimidation or harassment contained in Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which falls under DOJ's jurisdiction.  Interstate communications that threaten another person are punishable under 18 U.S.C. 875(c).

However, it appears that the FBI and DOJ have done nothing to investigate the threats against presidential electors.  We hope that the Trump Justice Department will investigate these threats, which not only threaten the electors individually but also our constitutional republic and the uniquely American nonviolent transition of power.

RNLA Congratulates Ronna Romney McDaniel as Next RNC Chair

Washington, DC — Today, the Republican National Committee (RNC) announced that Ronna Romney McDaniel will be the next Deputy Chair of the RNC, in line for the position of Chairwoman when current RNC Chairman Reince Priebus becomes President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff next month. While the Republican National Lawyers Association is fully separate from the RNC, we congratulate our fellow Republican organization on an excellent selection for its next leader and congratulate Ronna Romney McDaniel.

RNLA Chair Kimberly Reed said: "As the first female Chair of the Republican National Lawyers Association, I congratulate Ronna Romney McDaniel on being named Deputy Chair of the RNC. She ably led the Michigan Republican Party in a pivotal year that turned the key swing state of Michigan from blue to red for the first time in a presidential election since 1988. We look forward to her bringing that talent to the RNC to make a difference for our nation at the start of the Trump."

The RNC Chair is the national leader of the Republican Party, tasked with bringing the disparate coalitions that compose the Party together to advance Republican policy goals and elect Republican candidates. Ms. Romney McDaniel, Michigan native and niece of 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has served as Michigan’s representative to the RNC and as Chair of the Michigan Republican Party. She worked tirelessly on behalf of Republican candidates in Michigan this election cycle, bringing together different coalitions within the Party in Michigan.

RNLA’s Michigan Chapter Chair Jason Hanselman stated: "Congratulations to Ronna Romney McDaniel. Ronna is an excellent choice after leading the effort to win Michigan for Donald Trump, the first Republican Presidential candidate to win Michigan in 28 years—something many people said was impossible. Ronna's vision, leadership, and fundraising acumen allowed the Michigan Republican Party to achieve historic victories this year. And winning the election once was not enough for Ronna. She also worked tirelessly to defeat Jill Stein's wasteful recount effort—recruiting and organizing volunteers while overseeing the litigation that ultimately ceased the recount in Michigan. I wish Ronna the best in this new endeavor and am confident that she will bring to the RNC the same level of excellence she brought to the Michigan Republican Party." 

"The person who leads the RNC has a tremendous impact on the Republican Party and the entire country. Ronna Romney McDaniel is an excellent choice to succeed Reince Priebus," said Elliot Berke, President of RNLA.

RNLA is the national organization of Republican attorneys. The mission of RNLA is to advance professionalism; open, fair and honest elections; career opportunity; and Republican ideals. For more information, please visit http://www.rnla.org.

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Michigan Recount Status - Tuesday Night (12/6)

There have been a lot of moving parts with the presidential election recount requested by Green Party Jill Stein in Michigan.  Here's an outline of recent events:

• Donald Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes over Hillary Clinton.  Green Party candidate Jill Stein received 51,463 votes out of 4,799,284 total votes cast in the state.
• Michigan certified the election results November 28, triggering a 48-hour deadline for requesting a recount, and Stein petitioned for a recount on November 30.  Trump objected to the recount on December 1, and the Michigan Board of Canvassers met to consider the objection on Friday, December 2.
• The Michigan Board of Canvassers voted 2-2 along party lines, which meant there was no action on the objection and the recount would go forward.  Michigan has a two-business-day waiting period after a decision of the Board of Canvassers before a recount begins, which allows counties to prepare for the recount.  Counties expected to begin the recount on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.
• Recounts are conducted at the county level, by hand, and likely must be completed by Tuesday, Dec. 13, though the deadline under federal law may be later.  County election officials began preparing as soon as Stein announced her plan for a recount and have scrambled to find space and personnel to conduct the recounts, and many counties are still struggling to find volunteers to recount ballots.
• After the Board of Canvassers' vote, Stein challenged the two-day waiting period in federal district court.  The judge held a hearing on Sunday, December 4, and issued an order in the early hours of Monday morning, requiring that counties begin the recount at noon on Monday.  
• Earlier today (Tuesday, December 6), a three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals held a hearing on Trump's suit to stop the recount, in which the Michigan Attorney General has intervened.  Shortly after the hearing ended, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in an appeal of the district court order:

In a 2-1 ruling, the federal appeals court upheld an order from U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith, who ruled that delaying the recount could jeopardize the state’s ability to complete it by a Dec. 13 deadline. 

But the panel also suggested that Goldsmith should reconsider his order if state courts ruled against Stein. 

“If, subsequently, the Michigan courts determine that plaintiffs’ recount is improper under Michigan state law for any reason, we expect the district court to entertain any properly filed motions to dissolve or modify its order in this case,” said the 6th Circuit Court opinion.

• This evening, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the Board of Canvassers must reconsider and reject the recount petition:

A Michigan Court of Appeals panel has ordered the Board of State Canvassers to reconsider and reject a recount petition filed by Green Party candidate Jill Stein, ruling she did not meet the qualifications for the request because she has no chance at winning the presidential election. 

The unanimous ruling, released late Tuesday, could delegitimize the statewide hand recount already underway in several Michigan counties, but the court did not explicitly order that process to stop. Separately, a federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld an order forcing the state to start the recount Monday. 

The three-judge state panel ruled Stein does not meet the definition of an “aggrieved” party necessary for a proper recount petition.

So what happens now?:

• The Michigan Board of Canvassers is meeting at 9:30 on Wednesday morning.
• Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is planning to file a motion to dissolve the order requiring the recount to start Monday.
• Stein may appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.  If she does, she is seeking to have the two Michigan Supreme Court Justices on Trump's list of potential Supreme Court nominees disqualified. 
• There are significant questions of federal-state law and jurisdiction at issue in the court cases:

Although a ruling on federal constitutional law takes precedence over a state court ruling, Schuette said his attorneys plan to aggressively argue to stop the recount at a hearing in the Michigan Court of Appeals today, because the issue at hand is one of state law, not federal law. If there are conflicting rulings from state and federal court, the case could ultimately end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, he said.

"Michigan law prevails," Schuette said. "You can't make up -- like the federal judge is attempting to do -- a constitutional right to a recount."

The attorney general said state law is clear that Stein can't ask for a recount because she only received just over 1% of the vote. Therefore, a recount can't overturn the result for Stein and she is not an "aggrieved" party under state law, Schuette said. 

The Michigan Secretary of State is posting recount information here.

Jill Stein Requests $5 Million Recount in Michigan

As expected, today Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein officially petitioned for a recount of Michigan's presidential election results.  The recount in Michigan will be conducted by hand at the county level, and local election officials are scrambling to acquire the space and personnel necessary, all at great expense to Michigan taxpayers:

Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s quest to recount Michigan’s 4.8 million ballots in an unprecedented autopsy of a presidential election could cost taxpayers more than $4 million. 

Stein formally requested Wednesday a hand recount of the state’s presidential election, a labor-intensive undertaking that is expected to begin Friday morning and could result in marathon counting sessions until the Dec. 13 deadline. 

Republican President-elect Donald Trump won by 10,704 votes over Democrat Hillary Clinton, getting 47.5 percent of the vote to the former secretary of state’s 47.27 percent. Stein received 51,463 votes or about 1.1 percent. 

The Green Party nominee’s attorneys left a $973,250 check at the state Bureau of Elections to cover Stein’s legally required fees for seeking a recount of 6,300 precincts.

While the total cost of the recount is not yet known, it is estimated to be at least $3 million and as much as $12 million:

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said Wednesday the recount cost could total $5 million, leaving the state and county governments on the hook for the remaining $4 million. 

Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel blasted the request as a “reckless attempt to undermine the will” of Michigan’s voters. She noted Stein and her lawyer, Mark Brewer, have provided no evidence of vote fraud. 

“Jill Stein made her 1 percent temper tantrum official and will waste millions of Michigan taxpayers’ dollars, and has acknowledged that the recount will not change anything regarding the presidential election,” McDaniel said. 

Cost estimates for the recount have varied wildly between Johnson’s estimate of up to $3 million to Michigan GOP attorney Eric Doster’s estimate of $12 million, the cost of a full statewide election.

While recounts are useful and necessary tools for checking the accuracy of election results in close races, where no fraud or irregularities are suspected (as in North Carolina's gubernatorial race recount where irregularities have been found or are suspected in several counties), they can be misused as a political and publicity tool at the expense of taxpayers' funds and local election officials' time.  Such misuse is, unfortunately, the case with the Michigan recount.

Michigan’s and Mississippi's Primaries Disprove the Left's Feckless Rhetoric About Voter ID Laws

Both Republican and Democratic voters turned out en masse last Tuesday providing yet another glaring example, among the rapidly expanding list of examples, that voter ID laws do not disenfranchise voters. Michigan broke a record set in 1972:

With more than 2.4 million voters turning out for Michigan's presidential primary on Tuesday, the record set in 1972, when 1.9 million people cast ballots, was shattered. 

Turnout in areas of Michigan was so high Tuesday that some clerks were reporting that some precincts were running out of ballots. The high number was fueled by a huge increase in absentee voting this year over previous elections. 

Clerks ran out of ballots in Redford, Ingham County and in one precinct in Kent County. Additional ballots were quickly sent to those precincts, but some voters reported having to wait for more than an hour in line until more ballots were delivered. 

Turnout was so high at a Redford Township polling station, Precinct 25, that the station ran out of Democratic ballots for at least half an hour, an organizer said.

States with voter ID laws continue to see record turnouts this presidential cycle on both sides of the aisle. Like most states, Michigan, typically classified a swing state, did not seem to have an issue with its citizens finding and using their ID. 

Mississippi also had strong turnout at the polls, with no significant issues reported:

"Voting's been pretty steady," Smithka said. "We've had a pretty good turnout. No real problems with voter ID. A couple people forgot their IDs and had to go home and retrieve them, but other than that it's been pretty smooth." 

Alma Myers, who was in charge of the Walthall School Precinct on Southern Avenue, said everything was fine. 

"Things are going pretty good," she said. The precinct had serviced 171 voters by late afternoon.

Additional states with voter ID laws, specifically Missouri, Florida and North Carolina, have presidential primaries tomorrow. Given the turnout in early voting in North Carolina, it should be another banner day.