The Michigan Supreme Court decided last week that it would allow an anti-affirmative action proposal on the November ballot, despite allegations that many of the signatures were gathered using deception. According to the Detroit News, hundreds of people who signed the petitions were told that the measure was in support of affirmative action. In reality, the petition proposes an amendment to the state constitution that would ban preferential treatment on the basis of race, gender, color, ethnicity, and national origin that aims to correct the historical oppressions that some groups have experienced.
In the court’s majority decision, Justice Stephen Markman wrote that a citizen is responsible for his or her own actions and that one “cannot blame others when he signs a petition without knowing what it says,” according to the Detroit News. An investigation into the validity of each signature would require “endless litigation,” Markman added.
