State and Local Government Law Commons^™

From Commonwealth To Constitutional Limitations: Thomas Cooley's Michigan, 1805-1886, Robert Allan Olender

SJD Dissertations

In response to what he perceived as the challenges associated with republican governance in the later portions of the nineteenth century, Michigan’s Thomas McIntyre Cooley penned his treatise concerning constitutional limitations on legislative power. In it, Cooley offered a vision of government where courts would check government power and would raise constitutional barriers against the impact of improper influences on legislators. As a student of history, Cooley grounded his beliefs and doctrines in experience, not philosophical reflections. Believing that “the fruits of speculative genius in government are of little value,” Cooley submitted that governing structures and law “must be the …

Juvenile Life Without Parole: Unconstitutional In Michigan?, Kimberly A. Thomas

Articles

Last term, in Graham v Florida,1 the United States Supreme Court found unconstitutional the sentence of life without parole for a juvenile who committed a non-homicide offense. This attention to the sentencing of juvenile offenders is a continuation of the Court's decision in Roper v Simmons,2 in which the Court held that juvenile offenders could not constitutionally receive the death penalty. This scrutiny should be a signal to Michigan to examine its own jurisprudence on juveniles receiving sentences of life without parole. Michigan has the second-highest number of persons serving sentences of life without parole for offenses committed when they …

What Does Graham Mean In Michigan?, Kimberly A. Thomas

Articles

In Graham v. Florida, the United States Supreme Court held that life without parole could not be imposed on a juvenile offender for a nonhomicide crime.1 In this context, the Graham Court extensively discussed the diminished culpability of juvenile criminal defendants, as compared to adults. The Court relied on current scientific research regarding adolescent development and neuroscience. While the narrowest holding of Graham has little impact in Michigan, the science it relies on, and the potential broader implications for adolescents in Michigan, are significant.

Noontime Dumping: Why States Have Broad Discretion To Regulate Onboard Treatments Of Ballast Water, Kyle H. Landis-Marinello

Michigan Law Review

Ballast water discharges from shipping vessels are responsible for spreading numerous forms of aquatic invasive species, a form of biological pollution that leads to billions of dollars in annual costs. In the wake of inaction from the federal government and inaction from the shipping industry, several Great Lakes states are currently considering legislation to address the problem. Michigan has already passed a law to prevent ballast water introductions of invasive species. As states begin to regulate ballast water discharges from oceangoing vessels, such laws will likely face challenges based on the constitutional principles of the Dormant Commerce Clause and the …

Slides: Forest And Rangeland Planning, Nepa Analysis And Decisions, Glenn Casamassa

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

Presenter: Glenn Casamassa, Forest Supervisor, Arapahoe-Roosevelt National Forest

17 slides

Judging Girls: Decision Making In Parental Consent To Abortion Cases, Suellyn Scarnecchia, Julie Kunce Field

Articles

Judges make determinations on a daily basis that profoundly affect people's lives. On March 28, 1991, the Michigan legislature enacted a statute entitled The Parental Rights Restoration Act (hereinafter "the Michigan Act" or "the Act"). This statute delegated to probate court judges the extraordinary task of deciding whether a minor girl may have an abortion without the consent of a parent. Nothing in law school and little in an average judge's experience provide a meaningful framework for making such a decision. Although many commentators, including the authors, argue that decisions about abortion should be left to the woman regardless of …

The 'Right To Die': A Catchy But Confusing Slogan, Yale Kamisar

Articles

Some 30 years ago an eminent constitutional law scholar Charles L. Black, Jr., spoke of "toiling uphill against that heaviest of all argumental weights-the weight of a slogan. I am reminded of that observation when I confront the slogan the "right to die." Few rallying cries or slogans are more appealing and seductive than the "right to die." But few are more fuzzy, more misleading, and more misunderstood.

Are Laws Against Assisted Suicide Unconstitutional?, Yale Kamisar

Articles

On 15 February of this year, shortly after the number of people Dr. Jack Kevorkian had helped to commit suicide swelled to fifteen, the Michigan legislature passed a law, effective that very day, making assisted suicide a felony punishable by up to four years in prison. The law, which is automatically repealed six months after a newly established commission on death and dying recommends permanent legislation, prohibits anyone with knowledge that another person intends to commit suicide from "intentionally providing the physical means" by which the other person does so or from "intentionally participat[ing] in a physical act" by which …

County Home Rule: An Approach To Metropolitan Problems In Michigan, Stephen M. Silverman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This note examines what seems to be the most viable solution for metropolitan problems in Michigan: county home rule, as authorized by the 1963 state constitution. Since the primary obstacle to the use of county- home rule as a vehicle for metropolitan reform appears to lie in the present statutory authority, the Michigan County Home Rule Act of 1966 (Act), considerable attention is given to the Act and to recent legislation proposed to amend the Act, Michigan House Bill 5464, introduced into the Michigan Legislature on June 21, 1971, and currently pending before the Michigan House Committee on Towns and …

Sturm & Whitaker: Implementing A New Constitution: The Michigan Experience, Walter D. De Vries

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Implementing a New Constitution: The Michigan Experience by Albert L. Sturm and Margaret Whitaker

Constitutional Law--Police Power--Michigan Statute Requiring Motorcyclists To Wear Protective Helmets Held Unconstitutional, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The effects of the helmet decisions on the law in general may be substantial. On the one hand, if a helmet statute is held constitutional, inroads could be made upon personal liberty; the legislature might rely on similar strained and unproved relationships to the general welfare in order to justify regulations impinging upon other areas of individual conduct. On the other hand, to hold such a statute unconstitutional may require the judiciary to interfere unreasonably with the legislature's conception of public welfare. In light of these considerations, courts dealing with challenges to such regulations in the future should pay closer …

A Supplement To "Constitutionality Of Marketable Title Acts"-1951-1957, Ralph W. Aigler

Michigan Law Review

An article bearing the title, "Constitutionality of Marketable Title Acts," was published in December 1951. It was there pointed out that such legislation, of which the Michigan act is an example, should be found to be within constitutional limits. It was recognized, however, that direct authority was scarce and that cases that might be deemed pertinent were conflicting.

Labor Law--Federal-State Relations--Validity Of Michigan's Labor Mediation Act, R. L. Storms S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff labor union called a strike against defendant auto corporation in May, 1948, without conforming to the prescribed state procedure. The purpose of the strike was to enforce demands for higher wages and the strike was conducted peacefully. To enjoin possible criminal prosecution the union instituted the instant suit in the state courts, contending that the Michigan labor mediation law, the much publicized "Bonine-Tripp Act," violated the due process and commerce clauses of the Federal Constitution. The Michigan Supreme Court reversed the decision of the trial court which had granted the injunction. On appeal, held, reversed. Congress has occupied …

Corporations-Restrictions On Holding Real Estate-Lnterpretation Of Michigan's Constitutional Restriction, W. M. Myers

Michigan Law Review

While it is now well settled that a corporation has the power to acquire and hold real estate, this power may be limited by the charter creating the corporation, by legislative enactments of a general nature, or by specific constitutional provisions. When such a limitation is imposed by constitution, a problem of construction arises in interpreting it in a workable way after the social conditions motivating it have changed or disappeared.

Apportionment Of Representation In The Legislature: A Study Of State Constitutions, Elizabeth Durfee

Michigan Law Review

This paper is concerned with the rules found in our state constitutions for apportionment of representation in the state legislature. It does not attempt to solve the problems of high-tension politics that are involved in the making and remaking of such rules; it goes no deeper than an exposition of existing rules. Even on this level it is not exhaustive. Since the constitutions exhibit manifold variations, from simple directions which are scarcely more than a declaration of policy to complex rules for the formation of districts, no attempt will be made to classify all the different types of provisions. With …

Municipal Corporations-Standards Required In Licensing Ordinances

Michigan Law Review

Defendant appealed from conviction for operating a used auto business without obtaining a license for such business under a city ordinance requiring same to be granted by the city commission if in its opinion applicant was a proper and suitable person, the place to be used was proper, having in mind the nature and character of the business and possibility of commission of crime, and the sanitary facilities thereon were proper. There was no specific legislative grant for passage of such ordinance. Defendant's application was rejected by the commission mainly because of lack of proper sanitary facilities. Held, standards …

Constitutional Law - Due Process - Fishing Rights In The Public Waters Of Michigan

Michigan Law Review

The Ne-Bo-Shone Association, Inc., is an Ohio corporation which owns property on both banks of the Pine River for some distance. Following the decision of the Michigan Supreme Court in Collins V. Gerhardt that the stream is navigable and public, the complainant association was ordered to remove obstructions in the stream which hampered the free use of the stream by the public for fishing purposes. Thereupon complainant sought an in junction against certain public officials from taking action to remove these obstructions, claiming that it has the right to exclude the public from this portion of the Pine River, and …

Intoxicating Liquors -The New Michigan Amendment

Michigan Law Review

The people of the State of Michigan at the last general election ratified an amendment to section 11, Article 16 of the state constitution, the so-called prohibition section, to authorize the legislature to establish a liquor control commission and to impose an excise tax on liquor sales. In accordance with constitutional provisions this amendment went into effect on December eighth last. As the new amendment is drafted it leaves unsettled at least three important matters: (1) The present law in Michigan on the subject of intoxicating liquors; (2) The powers vested by it in the legislature and the liquor control …

Presumptions - Constitutional Validity Of Statute Establishing Proof Of Reputation As Prima Facie Evidence Of Commission Of Crime

Michigan Law Review

The rise and sway of the gangster as a menace to American social and economic security has led, of late, to the employment of unique means of combating lawlessness. Faced by a tremendous increase in the difficulties lying in the path of those seeking the conviction of professional criminals for major crimes, the police and prosecutors often turn towards a means of fighting crime originally devised to make life uncomfortable for petty off enders. The enforcement of the pistol laws and the vagrancy statutes against millionaire gangsters, and repeated arrests on suspicion, have been resorted to as a means of …

History Of Michigan Constitutional Provision Prohibiting A General Revision Of The Laws, W L. Jenks

Michigan Law Review

Alone among the states of the Union, Michigan has, since i85o, pr6hibited any general revision of the laws and permits only a compilation of laws in force without alteration. As practically all the neighboring states, as well as New York, from which much of the early legislatiorf of Michigan was derived, have continued to revise their statutes from time to time, it may be interesting to see why Michigan alone has thought it desirable not only to stop the practice which it followed until I85o, but to prevent effectually its legislature from ever attempting it in the future.

Real Significance Of The Proposed Michigan Beer And Wine Amendment, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

DISCUSSION of proposed prohibitory amendments to Constitutions, State or Federal, are usually regarded as part of the wet and dry fight in which lawyers are interested only as citizens. Before the recent Cleveland Meeting of the American Bar Association the bar of the country was circularized by a protest, signed by a number of very well known lawyers, urging the bar to take action against putting into the fundamental law, the Constitution, such matters as the regulation of what the people shall drink. These lawyers presented their case at the Cleveland meeting and vigorously attempted to induce the American Bar …

Are Too Many Executive Officers Elective?, Bradley M. Thompson

Articles

We propose very briefly to call attention, to so much of the present constitution of Michigan as has to do with the executive department, and to consider the methods which the people have adopted for selecting those public servants whose official duty it is to enforce the law, to maintain public order and protect private rights.

Local Self-Government, So Called, As It Is Found In The Constitution Of Michigan, Otto Kirchner

Articles

It is not my purpose to enter upon a detailed examination of municipal government as it now exists, but to confine myself to the consideration of some of the constitutional limitations that rest upon the legislative power to deal with the matter.

How May Presidential Electors Be Appointed?, Bradley M. Thompson

Articles

For more than half a century presidential electors have been chosen upon a general ticket in all the states. This was not the uniform practice at first. Judge Cooley in the last number of the JOU11NAL makes it clear that at least four different methods were at first adopted, one of them, the "district system," being that selected by the last legislature of Michigan. Following Judge Cooley's article is one by Gen. B. M. Cutcheon attacking this system on two grounds: First, that it is in conflict with the Constitution of the United States; and, secondly, that it is mischievous …