James Hendrikson, ACLU of Michigan InternShare this on Facebook | Tweet this
Fans of free speech can breathe a sigh of relief, as the State of Michigan has backed off of an unconstitutional policy preventing sitting U.S. Representative John Conyers from being on the August ballot.
This comes as a victory for many who felt that the removal of Rep. Conyers from the ballot was unfair and a hindrance to the right of everyone to participate in the political process.
This entire debacle stems from a heated situation in which hundreds of signatures that petitioners collected for Conyers’ re-election campaign were invalidated on the grounds that several of the petition circulators were not registered voters required by a Michigan statute.
There is no practical need to restrict petition circulators to registered voters and doing so only serves to curb our free speech. The foundation of our political system is rooted in the need for open political processes and communication.
An essential part of our political process is that everyone has the ability to be heard.
Thankfully, however, Federal Judge Leitman ruled in favor of allowing John Conyers onto the August Primary ballot.