State Rep. Dave Agema, R-Grandville, has submitted a resolution asking that the Michigan Supreme Court hear a case involving home-based day care workers who say they didn't realize they were unionized by the state.

The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation appealed the case to the Michigan Supreme Court. The public-interest law firm filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Human Services on behalf of home-based day care providers. In December of 2009, the Michigan Court of Appeals dismissed the case without explanation.

"We are not giving up on this," Agema said. "You got people paying union dues who don't want to be part of a union."

The case involves at least 40,000 home-based business owners and millions of dollars that were affected by the union effort to designate the providers as government employees for unionization and dues-collecting purposes.

Agema said he is also working on getting an amicus brief filed with the case from the Michigan House of Representatives' Republican Caucus. An amicus brief is filed by a party not directly related to the case, but shows their support.

Patrick Wright, senior legal analyst for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said the resolution and amicus brief could help the efforts to get the state Supreme Court to hear the case. Wright said part of the criteria the high court uses is gauging the public interest in the case.

"It would be welcomed to have that done," Wright said. "The more perspectives we have saying, 'There was something wrong here,' the better."

Agema served on the House appropriations subcommittee that questioned the Department of Human Services about how the Michigan Home Based Child Care Council — a state agency — had its funding axed from the state budget but continued to operate.

At the time, DHS officials told Agema they couldn't answer that question because of the lawsuit. Later, a Michigan Home Based Child Care Council official said it gets its money from other funds in the Department of Human Services.

Kathy Hoekstra, a communications specialist with the Mackinac Center, set out to find who the employer was for the home-based day care workers that were being unionized but could find no individual or organization willing to claim them.

In 2009, the University of Michigan announced that its three campuses - Ann Arbor, Flint and Dearborn - would be smoke-free on July 1, 2011.

The University of Michigan's student newspaper - The Michigan Daily - wrote an opinion piece last week suggesting a conflict of interest involving University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman.

Coleman also earned a $230,000 salary in 2009 for sitting on the board of Johnson & Johnson. Alza Corporation, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, markets Nicorette and Nicoderm, smoking cessation products.

Three ethics experts say Coleman is not in conflict.

"She is doing a public health service," Peter Rost, a former vice president of Pfizer who has testified before Congress on the business practices of drug companies, wrote in an e-mail. "The possible income by J&J from this campus is completely and utterly negligible and will have no impact on J&J income statement. Same thing if she opened public health clinic for depressed students and happened to sit on board of (a company)  selling antidepressants. Conflict of interest should normally have some undue influence on either party. Since that is not the case I'm not troubled."

Aine Donovan, the executive director of the Ethics Institute at Dartmouth College who teaches business ethics, said she didn't see a conflict.

"This is very reasonable," Donovan said. "Johnson & Johnson has a large range of products. This is a very reasonable position she is taking and it is a very laudable one."

Timothy Keane, director of the Emerson Ethics Center in St. Louis, said it was "a bit of a stretch" to say Coleman had a conflict of interest.

"Johnson & Johnson is not trying to set up shop and sell something to the University," Keane said. "They are not being a supplier to the University. It doesn't matter if you are a smoker or not, research indicates it is bad for you."