Commentary

Does Prop 2 render National Popular Vote unconstitutional in Michigan?

Before Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court, National Popular Vote faces a roadblock: The Michigan Constitution

Michigan’s entry into the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact would be unconstitutional, a Mackinac Center review has found. And the provision that prevents it was passed by Michigan voters last year in Proposal 2.

Proposal 2 passed in Nov. 2022 by a 60-40 margin. As the House Fiscal Agency wrote in its analysis of Proposal 2022-2:

The proposal would add a provision to the constitution stating that the outcome of every election in Michigan must be determined “solely by the vote of electors casting ballots in the election.”

I wrote in April that faithful electors were the antidote to National Popular Vote. The interstate scheme would pledge all of Michigan’s electoral votes to the popular vote winner.

Those votes would be pledged even if the popular vote winner lost Michigan. House Bill 4156 would create the first loser-takes-all system in Michigan’s history.

But Michigan already has a faithful elector amendment in its supreme law. The people of Michigan approved it.

Not in the 1890s. Last November. The people of Michigan have spoken, and they want our elections decided “solely by the vote of electors casting ballots in the election.”

Electors’ votes must reflect the will of the people of Michigan. Not interstate schemes. Not acts of conscience.

The push for House Bill 4156 reflects no awareness of the provision. I debated State Rep. Carrie Rheingans, D-Ann Arbor, last week on Fox 2 Detroit’s Let It Rip on House Bill 4156. I work for a policy shop. Carrie is a lawmaker. Roop Raj and Charlie Langton are veteran TV news reporters. And none of the four of us spoke with an awareness of Article 2, section 7.

If Michigan will become a National Popular Vote state, it will take a constitutional amendment to that effect. Not an act of law, passed by two-seat majorities in each house. That shortcut was closed off by we, the people. It turns out we anticipated the 2023 Michigan Democrats.

For all Rheingans’ talk that the Electoral College is outdated, it’s actually a 2022 Michigan Constitutional amendment that will render National Popular Vote inert.

Hail the wisdom of crowds.

James David Dickson is managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential. Email him at dickson@mackinac.org.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

News Story

Defying Supreme Court and Congress, Biden unilaterally offers $39B in student loan forgiveness

President blames ‘past administrative failures’ for loans not being discharged earlier

President Joe Biden will “automatically discharge” $39 billion in student loan debt for 804,000 borrowers, the U.S. Department of Education announced Friday.

Biden’s announcement stands in direct defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Biden vs. Nebraska, which found the president does not have the authority to forgive student loans. That ruling was made in June.

Earlier that month, Biden signed a debt ceiling deal that terminated his student loan pause, effective 60 days from June 30. That pause will end Aug. 29.

The president’s announcement Friday presented the forgiveness not as a blanket offering, but the fixing of a failing in the system.

“For far too long, borrowers fell through the cracks of a broken system that failed to keep accurate track of their progress towards forgiveness,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “By fixing past administrative failures, we are ensuring everyone gets the forgiveness they deserve, just as we have done for public servants, students who were cheated by their colleges, and borrowers with permanent disabilities, including veterans.”

The Mackinac Center in May sued the U.S. Department of Education over the student loan pause, arguing it is an unconstitutional overstep of the president’s authority. Despite Biden’s signing the debt ceiling deal that terminates the pause, that lawsuit is ongoing.

Patrick Wright, the Mackinac Center’s vice president for legal affairs, has said the suit must continue so the U.S. Department of Education does not just employ a workaround.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.