Michigan’s vast, disorganized criminal law inherently places residents at risk of unintentionally violating a growing array of regulatory crimes that are difficult to discover and understand. The complexity of administrating such a criminal code threatens to divert scarce resources away from the enforcement of serious violent and property crimes. This event will feature ideas about how to protect Michigan residents from overcriminalization and improve the state’s criminal law.

Miriam Aukerman joined the ACLU of Michigan in December 2010 as the staff attorney for the newly-opened West Michigan Regional Office. In addition to building a robust legal program in West Michigan, Aukerman participates in advocacy activities, such as public speaking, media interviews and outreach work to increase understanding of constitutional rights and the ACLU’s work.

James R. Copland is a senior fellow with and the director of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Legal Policy, which seeks to develop and communicate thoughtful ideas on how to improve the civil and criminal justice system. Copland oversees two of the Institute's websites, PointofLaw.com, a web magazine that brings together information and opinion on the U.S. legal system, and ProxyMonitor.org, an online database of shareholder proposals at America’s largest publicly traded companies. He is also project manager for the Institute's Trial Lawyers, Inc. series of publications examining the size, scope and inner workings of America's litigation industry.

Michael Reitz is executive vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and one of the co-authors of the Overciminalization Study we published late last year along with James Copland and Isaac Gorodetski, both from Manhattan Institute. Prior to joining the Mackinac Center, Reitz spent eight years with the Freedom Foundation as general counsel and director of labor policy. An expert on government transparency, he is a member of the board of directors of the Michigan Coalition for Open Government.

Lunch is free and is included with reservations.

Register for this event.

If you have any questions or need more information, please contact Event Manager Kimberley Fischer-Kinne at 989-698-1905 or events@mackinac.org.