Shortly after Michigan residents learned they’d be paying less on their income taxes, the state treasurer announced that this cut would be temporary and only apply to this year, despite clear language in the law requiring a permanent tax rate cut. The Mackinac Center is challenging this shaky interpretation of the law to preserve the tax cut and save Michiganders more than $700 million a year.
Before the ink dried on the United States Supreme Court decision that struck down an unconstitutional student-loan cancellation program, the United States Department of Education rushed to announce several equally unlawful loan cancellation schemes. If left unchecked, one of these plans could cost American taxpayers $175 billion.
On February 23, 2023, the Mackinac Center filed a FOIA request for agreements made between Michigan State University and a local farmer who had donated a parcel of land to the university. The Center filed its request after learning that MSU was considering selling the land for use in an economic development mega-site, which may have been prohibited by the donor’s agreement with the university. . Michigan State University’s response redacted several paragraphs of the agreement, claiming that they contained private information, but a review of the documents suggests that the exemptions Michigan State University claimed don’t apply to the information that was redacted.
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation is suing Michigan State University to obtain full and complete transparency regarding the agreements, and to hold the university accountable for its poor FOIA practices.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Congress suspended federal student loan payments for a temporary 6 month period. While this relief should have expired in 2020, the Department of Education has illegally continued to extend the suspension, costing taxpayers over $150 billion from lost interest.
The federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was created in March 2020 to help small businesses weather the economic storms of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite being ineligible, the Michigan Education Association and the Michigan Education Special Services Association received a sum totaling more than $12.5 million in taxpayer funds. The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation discovered the error, and both organizations have since repaid the loans, as well as fines and costs.
Despite glowing teacher evaluations, John Lancellotta, a public school teacher in Rhode Island, lost his job after exercising his First Amendment right to opt out of his union. By forcing John to choose between supporting the union and keeping his job, the school placed an unconstitutional condition on his employment.
Sandra Hernden is a police officer and mother to a special needs student in the Chippewa Valley School System. During the shift to remote learning, she watched as her son suffered both academically and socially.
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation is representing Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan in its effort to end the governor’s power grab.
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) claims that the “Pure Michigan” tourism program has been a successful investment while never producing the information needed for the public to assess that claim for themselves. The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation is suing the MEDC after a multi-year effort to obtain clarifying documents through FOIA.
Since December 2021, Carol Beth Litkouhi has been truing to get records from the Rochester Community School District. The district has refused to turn them over, wrongly citing copyright law and other statutes.
In 1970, Michigan adopted a discriminatory provision to its constitution that prevents private schools and their students from receiving any form of public aid. The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation filed suit on Sept. 23 against the state of Michigan on behalf of five families who want to provide the best education possible for their children by using a federally administered 529 education saving account to pay for private K-12 tuition.
On March 29, the Mackinac Center filed a public records request to the city of Highland Park for the salary and personnel records for Lieutenant James McMahon.
On Jan. 12, 2021, the Mackinac Center filed a FOIA request for the names of all employees of the University of Michigan's Office of Institutional Equity in 2019 and 2020. On Feb. 2, the university released the names and base salary of the employees but failed to provide the bonus and overtime pay requested.
In early January, the Mackinac Center made a routine FOIA request to the City of Flint asking for the gross salaries of the city's public employees. As of mid-March, the Center has not received any correspondence or records from the city.
In January, Charlie LeDuff sent a FOIA request to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for information on deaths related to COVID-19. The Michigan Department of Heath and Human Services denied this request.
The Mackinac Center submitted a FOIA request to the city of Warren that asked for the salaries and names of every city employee. The city responded to the request with the estimated costs, but said it would omit employees' names. It failed to cite a reason for the exemption, a requirement of Michigan's FOIA law.
In March, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni filed a public records request to find out how that gift had been spent. U-M estimated it would take less than seven hours to produce the documents, but despite 200 days passing by and hundreds of dollars being spent, the full records have still not been given.
The Mackinac Center paid over $500 and waited over five months for a public records request sent to Michigan State University. The university estimated that the request would take approximately 17 hours to complete, but has yet to provide the public documents.
In May, the Mackinac Center filed a public records request with the University of Michigan in order to get documents and data which allegedly supported Gov. Whitmer's spring shutdowns. The information was denied for months and, when ultimately provided, was heavily redacted or withheld.
In June 2020, the Mackinac Center filed a public records request with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs concerning businesses that allegedly violated the governor's executive orders related to COVID-19.
Though they paid property taxes each year, they unknowingly underpaid their 2014 taxes by $144. By 2017, Wayne County tacked on another $359 in interest, penalties and fees, foreclosed on their property, sold it for $108,000 and kept every cent beyond what they owed—as allowed by current state law.
In the wake of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's many executive orders, an event organizers called Operation Haircut took place on the Capitol lawn on May 20, 2020. During this protest, hairstylist Sarah Huff was cited and is now facing a misdemeanor.
As businesses who differ from the official pace for reopening society begin to act in civil disobedience, the governor has claimed the power to increase penalties for violation of executive orders.
Three medical practices and one patient were unable to schedule important medical procedures due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Beginning in 2014, the union forced Jim Shake to contribute to “Local X” — supposedly a local UAW union, for which Shake and Mackinac Center Legal Foundation attorneys could find no record.
The Institute for Justice is representing 3 families discriminated against by the Montana Department of Revenue, which adopted a rule limiting the use of tax-credit scholarships to non-religious schools.
Lucille Taylor has been a practicing attorney in the state of Michigan since 1972. Each year, she is forced by the state to pay an annual bar association fee and be a member of the State Bar of Michigan.
On May 13, the Mackinac Center requested files related to an individual licensed by the state. LARA said they would respond by June 5. More than two months later, the agency had not provided the documents and ignored a follow-up response.
While Jody Lutter, Lisa Grega and Michael Kopie may have drastically different occupations, they are all facing the same problem; window periods that limit their ability to opt out of their union.
Michael Dorr owns a beautiful cottage in Saint Clair Shores. Like many young entrepreneurs, Dorr recognized a need in his community and decided to fill it. This need was for safe home rentals at a reasonable price.
Michael Thulen, Michael Porter and Terence Gaudlip are three public employees in the state of New Jersey. They believe it is their right to leave a union and end financial support to it at any time.
Dr. Marc Edwards, as part of his work related to the Flint water crisis, submitted several FOIA requests to Wayne State University in 2017. The university chose to ignore FOIA law.
Lin Rizzo-Rupon, Noemieo Oliveira and Susan Marshall didn't choose to join their union, but are currently forced to support it in order to keep their jobs.
After waiting more than 100 days for the University of Michigan to fulfill a simple Freedom of Information Act request, the Mackinac Center filed a lawsuit against the university, asking the court to enforce the state’s open records law.
Four years after Michigan passed right-to-work and three contract agreements later, it’s time the MEA and all its local affiliates admit that right-to-work applies to teachers, too. So the MCLF is helping science teacher Ronald Robinson in his fight to exercise his freedom.
Open government requires timely information, so the MCLF filed a lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). The reason: The department was taking months to respond to a simple public records request related to the Flint water crisis.
First Amendment rights are violated when people are forced to subsidize speech they disagree with. The Mackinac Center is representing a resort owner fighting against a tourism bureau that is making him subsidize marketing campaigns he opposes.
The MCLF filed suit on behalf of Adam Neuman, a Brighton High School teacher, against the Brighton Education Association and the Brighton Area Schools Board of Education. The contract violated two state laws and infringed on Neuman’s freedoms.
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation filed unfair labor complaints on behalf of Miriam Chanski, as well as several other plaintiffs, against the Michigan Education Association over the union's misreading of Michigan's right-to-work law.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy filed a lawsuit against the city of Westland for an illegal fee on people seeking public information. As a result, they agreed to restructure the fees they charged for public documents.
The MCLF filed a lawsuit on behalf of four city of Dearborn employees against Teamsters Local 214 over the union's misreading of Michigan's right-to-work law. As of December 2013, Teamsters Local 214 abandoned its anti-RTW discriminatory policy.
Michael Fernhout, fifth grade teacher in Wyoming, Michigan, decided it was time to opt out of his union. “I wanted out because even though unions do a lot of work, I wasn’t benefiting from it… [and] the membership fees were astronomical.”
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation sued on behalf of teacher Joshua Khon. A union claims that he still has to pay a service fee, despite Michigan’s right-to-work law, because of an unusually-long and strangely-structured agreement made between the union and the school district.
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation sued on behalf of three teachers in the Taylor School District over a side agreement the union and school board reached that would force teachers to financially support the union for 10 years.
The Foundation sued to end the SEIU-HM and MQCCC's illegal diversion of so-called "union dues" from federal Medicaid checks received by home help providers, who are often tending disabled family members.
The Foundation prevented the Michigan Employment Relations Commission from violating its previous ruling that research assistants are students, not public employees. The motion was filed on behalf of Melinda Day, a graduate research assistant.
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation sued 10 Kent County school districts and the Kent County Education Association to remove illegal contract language.
The Foundation sued to end the DHS' illegal diversion of so-called "union dues" from state subsidy checks received by Michigan's home-based day care providers who watch children from low-income families.
