Mar 5, 2020
Education campaign for new gun policy in Grand Rapids
Beginning April 1, it will be illegal for youth younger than 16 years old to possess BB- or other pellet guns in Grand Rapids without adult supervision.
Brandishing and discharging those and other real-looking pneumatic guns in public, regardless of age, will also be a criminal misdemeanor.
Read more at mLive.com
Mar 3, 2020
Everything You Need To Know About Section 230
In the United States, the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting most forms of speech. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which was passed in 1996, protects websites from lawsuits if a user posts something illegal, although there are exceptions for copyright violations, sex work-related material, and violations of federal criminal law.
Read more at The Verge
...and all of the plans for how to change i
Mar 2, 2020
New law could help low-income families avert tax foreclosure
Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a law Monday that will help low-income families avoid home foreclosures for unpaid taxes.
The law allows local governments to forgive penalties and interest for families that meet an income test.
Read more at Michigan Radio
Feb 25, 2020
"Real ID Law" takes effect in October
"Real ID is a part of the federal government’s response to 9/11," said Jake Rollow, Director of Communications for the Michigan Department of State.
Rollow says the Real ID Act's requirements have been delayed for years.
"It’s a law that’s been in place for a long time,” Rollow said. “And it’s now coming into the final phase which is full enforcement.'
Read more at WNEM5.com
Feb 19, 2020
After Police Brutally Beat & Hospitalized James King, The Government Closed Ranks and Is Using a Legal Shell Game To Avoid Accountability
"In 2014, James King was a law-abiding college student who was brutally beaten and choked unconscious by members of a joint state/federal police task force after they misidentified him as a suspect sought in connection with a non-violent petty crime. Ever since that day, the government has used every tool at its disposal to ensure those officers are not held accountable to the Constitution.
As IJ Attorney Patrick Jaicomo explained, “The Fourth Amendment prevents the government from undertaking unreasonable searches and seizures. Here, at every step of the way, the officers were unreasonable in searching and seizing James, including when they beat him. We filed this lawsuit in 2016. It’s now 2020 and the government still hasn’t even filed an answer addressing all the claims that we’ve raised. Instead, they’ve spent the past four years filing different motions with courts, arguing under technicalities why they shouldn’t be held accountable rather than explaining why what they did actually wasn’t wrong.”
One of those technicalities is called “qualified immunity,” a special legal protection the Supreme Court created in the 1980s to protect government officials. Under qualified immunity, officers can violate the Constitution unless previous court rulings have explicitly prohibited that exact action by the police—a standard that has become nearly impossible to meet."
Read more at the Institute For Justice
