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Press Release

MI Supreme Court Denies Appeal By MCRI Opponents

Michigan voters to decide whether to end use of race, gender special preferences

LANSING, MI:

Jennifer Gratz, executive director of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, issued the following statement on the Michigan Supreme Court's denial today to hear an appeal filed by groups opposed to letting voters decide whether to end the use of race and gender special preferences in public education, government employment and state contracting:

"In denying the appeal from the radical group By Any Means Necessary, the Michigan Supreme Court has sided with the rule of law over charged political rhetoric. MCRI and the more than 500,000 citizens who signed petitions to qualify MCRI for the ballot, have known for a long time that BAMN's allegations were nothing more than baseless delaying tactics designed to thwart the people's right to petition their government and decide whether to end the use of race and gender special preferences for public education, government employment and state contracting. MCRI set the gold standard in following state law when it collected more than half-a-million petition signatures to place this issue before voters, and the Supreme Court's decision not to take up BAMN's appeal is further evidence of this. Now Michigan voters not BAMN and its supporters in big labor, big business and big government will get to decide the important issue of whether race should be a factor in decisions made by our government."

The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative Committee (MCRI), a Michigan-based Ballot Question Committee, is dedicated to giving the people of Michigan the opportunity to end preferential treatment based on race, gender, ethnicity, or national origin by state or local governments. MCRI will make Michigan a place of equal opportunity for all, not a state that uses discrimination as a tool to create “diversity.” Achieving “diversity” should never be an excuse to discriminate.

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