Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action - Reason Foundation

21fornia, between the years 1914 and 2000, only 60statewide initiatives were placed on the Michiganballot, and only 20 passed. 5 The state constitutionprescribes the formula for determining how manysignatures are necessary for constitutionalamendments as “10 percent of the total vote castfor all candidates for governor at the last precedinggeneral election at which a governor was elected.”Mich. Const. Art. XII, sec. 2. Signatures must becollected in person by signature gatherers, submittedat least 120 days prior to the election and verifiedby the appropriate state agency. Id. All in all,the process has been a vehicle for sober and dispassionatereform. 6 Amici regard its record as better5 See Initiative and Referendum Inst., Statewide InitiativeUsage [Mich. 1914-2000], available athttp://www.iandrinstitute.org/New%20IRI%20Website%20Info/I&R%20Research%20and%20History/I&R%20at%20the%20Statewide%20Level/Usage%20history/Michigan.pdf.6 This is not to say that MCRI’s opposition was always soberand dispassionate. See, e.g. Editorial, From the Daily: Embarrassment,The Michigan Daily (October 31, 2006) (condemningthe tactics of Respondent Coalition to DefendAffirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights andFight for Equality by Any Means Necessary as “alienatingand inflammatory,” including “pull[ing] more than 1,000middle and high school students out of class to bus them infor the rally,” some of whom engaged in “spitting and yelling”at opponents); Associated Press, Election Board Fails to PutAffirmative Action Issue on Ballot, The Michigan Daily (Dec.14, 2005) (describing out-of-control crowd of 250 high schoolstudents, brought in by Respondent Coalition to Defend AffirmativeAction, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fightfor Equality by Any Means Necessary, who overturned a tableat a public meeting of the Board of State Canvassers whilesurging towards the board members and chanting “‘They sayJim Crow, we say hell no!’”). But these tactics were not