“Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.”
- John Adams -
Advocates for citizen-only voting took a big blow this week as the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case of Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan, which had appealed its ballot measure’s failure before the Michigan Board of State Canvassers. The board earlier deadlocked on approving the measure’s petition signatures. The federal high court’s action means the Republican-led initiative won’t be on the ballot this cycle, but the push for citizen-only voting is an issue that isn’t going away any time soon.
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Ben Solis - Senior Reporter
YOUR TOP MICHIGAN ADVANCE STORIES OF THE WEEK
A Flock license plate reader camera in Southfield. July 3, 2026. | Photo by Katherine Dailey/Michigan Advance.
By Katherine Dailey
Livingston County Sheriff Mike Murphy said that the county has temporarily removed all of its Flock cameras — the controversial automatic license plate readers that have stirred bipartisan pushback across Michigan and the country — in the wake of a repeated string of vandalism incidents targeting the cameras.
Vice President JD Vance speaking in Sterling Heights, Michigan on Aug. 31, 2026. (Courtesy of C-SPAN)
By Ben Solis
U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Monday did not even once mention the nation’s ongoing trade war with Canada — and The White House’s politically charged renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake America as a result — during a visit to Sterling Heights aimed at boosting President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidates in Michigan.
An aerial view of the Brandon Road lock and dam near Joliet, Illinois. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
By Kyle Davidson
More than a month after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers halted work on a critical project aimed at keeping invasive carp out of the Great Lakes, the stop-work order barring the effort from progressing has been lifted.
The U.S. Supreme Court, on April 9, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
By Katherine Dailey
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh declined an application from Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan seeking to appeal a deadlocked decision by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers that left a citizens-only voting proposal off the November general election ballot due to a lack of valid petition signatures.
Detroit’s 36th District Court | Ken Coleman
By Tom Perkins
Wayne County public defenders and their union allege that two judges effectively attempted to strikebreak by accusing three attorneys of contempt for refusing to cross the picket line and represent clients.
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