Bolts Magazine: Michigan’s Republican legislature’s seemingly duplicitous strategy to get around progressive ballot measures struck down by the state’s high court.

“Michigan progressives gathered enough signatures in 2018 to put two labor measures on the ballot: one to raise the minimum wage, another to mandate paid sick time for employees. Republican lawmakers, who ran the state at that time, thwarted the proposals with a brazen two-step maneuver. Before the measures were put before voters, they adopted legislation that enacted both into law exactly as organizers had drafted them; this eliminated them from the ballot. But once Election Day passed, lawmakers reconvened and gutted the laws they had just passed, all but erasing organizers’ work.”

Once again, the stakes were policies that are good for workers: a $2 increase in the minimum wage and paid sick leave for all employees. I have blogged about various attempts by Republican legislatures to undermine direct democracy, but this is a new one. The article is worth a read, pointing out that Utah’s Supreme Court has also taken a stand in favor of direct democracy.