[EL] Michigan Secretary of State seeks to block ballot initiatives by special interests

[Smith, Brad]

Not exactly on point, but I've always loved the exchange Mrs. William Howard Taft once had with a reporter:


Reporter: "Do you think of your husband as a common man?"

Mrs. Taft: "Oh, no, no! The senator is very uncommon. He was first in his class at Yale and first in his class at the Harvard Law School. We wouldn't permit Ohio to be represented in the Senate by just a common man."

My, how what we expect from politicians has changed.



Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault

   Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 E. Broad St.

Columbus, OH 43215

614.236.6317

http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

________________________________
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Larry Levine [larrylevine at earthlink.net]
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2012 11:04 AM
To: 'Sam Bagenstos'; law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Michigan Secretary of State seeks to block ballot initiatives by special interests

Aha. The old question: what is a special interest? The answer: someone who gives to the other side; if they give to my side they are enlightened defenders of justice and liberty. Is the Sierra Club a special interest? Is Local Union 1 a special interest? Is Exxon-Mobil a special interest? Is the ACLU a special interest? Is any deep pocket a special interest? Shall the initiative game be reduced to players who cannot afford to qualify a measure or run a campaign for it. If a group of narrowly focused zealots qualifies a measure for the ballot that would put some major industry out of business, should the industry be banned from playing defense because it’s a special interest? Is special interest just a euphemism for deep pocket?
Larry

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Sam Bagenstos
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2012 5:23 AM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: [EL] Michigan Secretary of State seeks to block ballot initiatives by special interests


What do Bopp, Smith, et al., make of this story?



Michigan Secretary of State seeks to block ballot initiatives by special interests
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012311300082

(Sent from Free Press)


Sent from my iPad
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