The MagazineThe Magazine of the of Mackinac the Mackinac Center Center for Public for Public Policy Policy NOVEMBER/DECEMBER JULY/AUGUST 2015 2015 LEADING THE WAY Mackinac Center Takes Center Stage at Annual Meeting of State-Based Think Tanks Page 10 Civil Asset Forfeiture Mackinac Center's Work Pays Off in Reform Page 7 Votespotter is now available in more states than Michigan. Make sure you are represented well in over a dozen states, with more to come. State Officials Available In: Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin. U.S. Congress is available in all 50 states. VoteSpotter is a mobile app that connects you to your representatives. Get alerts when they vote, then tell them what you think. It's never been easier to make your voice heard. Download it free at the App Store and Google Play. VoteSpotter.com IMPACT 3 November/December 2015 mackinac.org FROM THE WEB Blog Explore Keep up to date on the latest policy stories from Mackinac Center analysts. Mackinac.org/blog MichiganVotes this issue Want to know what your legislator (and others) have been voting for? MichiganVotes.org helps keep Michigan politicians accountable to their constituents. MichiganVotes.org 4 The Idea of Liberty 8 Michigan Trails Only Letter from the Executive Vice Pennsylvania in Contracting CapCon President Out for School Services Our flagship news source for the state of Michigan. Breaking news like 5 Helping Teachers Exercise 9 Kendra Shrode never before. Their Legal Rights Loyal Freedom Fighter MichCapCon.com 5 Three Experts Join Board of 9 Looking Back Databases Scholars Inspired by Heroes Far and Near Labor contracts, superintendent salaries, school grading and more. Our online databases provide easy access 6 Interview With a Supporter 10 Leading the Way: SPN Annual to important information. Larry Buist, Co-Founder of Buist Meeting Mackinac.org/databases Electric 14 Legislature Actively Considers 6 Michigan Already Benefitting Criminal Justice Reforms from Right-to-Work What folks are saying 14 Research Director Debates about the MAckinac Center 7 Mackinac Center Launches Lansing Mayor on Corporate ChoosingCharters.com Welfare “I’m a Mackinac Center 7 Civil Asset Forfeiture 15 Life and Liberty guy…I appreciate the Mackinac Center’s Work Pays Off Which is Better: Finding Fault or Mackinac Center’s in Reform Providing Help? leadership on a variety of different issues, whether it’s education, tax policy, public safety… and particularly on this issue of forfeiture as well.” — Attorney General Bill Schuette on a media conference call for the civil asset forfeiture bills. GENEVA RUPPERT RECOMMENDS ArtPrize Hundreds of thousands of people visit Grand Rapids every autumn to see the biggest art exhibition in the world. This year, artists installed 1,550 pieces at 162 venues across the city. The wide variety of their work displays the talent and creativity of humanity: long-exposure photographs of fireworks; portraits made entirely of textiles and leather sewn together; and even a collection of parodied Michigan tourism posters, with blunderous slogans like “See Michigan before we sell the U.P. to Wisconsin!” The ingenuity is obvious, but perhaps more impressive is the public-private partnership behind the festival. The ArtPrize nonprofit partners with the city government of Grand Rapids to create an atmosphere conducive to massive installations and crowds. ArtPrize Eight runs from Sept. 21-Oct. 9, 2016. Mark your calendars! YouTube.com Twitter.com Flickr.com Facebook.com /MackinacCenter /MackinacCenter /MackinacCenter /MackinacCenter IMPACT 3 November/December 2015 mackinac.org LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Board of Directors Hon. Clifford W. Taylor, R. Douglas Kinnan Chairman Senior Vice President Retired Chief Justice, and CFO, Michigan Supreme Court Amerisure Insurance Joseph G. Lehman, President Edward C. Levy Jr. Mackinac Center for President, Edw. C. Public Policy Levy Co. Joseph J. Fitzsimmons Rodney M. Lockwood Jr. The Idea of Liberty Retired President, President, Lockwood University Microfilms Construction Company, Inc. "Americans and Europeans alike Memorial remind us again of the idea of Dulce M. Fuller Owner, Woodward and Joseph P. Maguire sometimes forget how unique is the liberty — the proposition that “all men are Maple President, Wolverine Development Richard G. Haworth Corporation United States of America. No created equal.” Chairman Emeritus, Haworth, Inc. Richard D. McLellan other nation has been created MICHAEL J. Attorney, McLellan Law Our last stop was the Tomb of the Kent B. Herrick Offices so swiftly and successfully. REITZ President and CEO, Unknown Soldier to watch the Thermogy D. Joseph Olson No other nation has been built Retired Senior Vice changing of the guard. I’ve made J.C. Huizenga President and General upon an idea — the idea of liberty." President, Westwater Counsel, Amerisure dozens of trips to D.C. and yet this was Group Companies —Margaret Thatcher, 1991 my first time viewing the ceremony. The Two weeks ago I joined hundreds of Board of Scholars guard relinquishes his watch and passes Dr. Donald Alexander Annette Kirk lawyers, judges and policy experts for Western Michigan Russell Kirk Center for orders to the new sentry: “Remain as University Cultural Renewal a gathering of the Federalist Society in directed.” Through rain, snow or terror … Dr. William Allen David Littmann Michigan State Mackinac Center for Washington, D.C. The occasion, the Barbara remain as directed. University Public Policy K. Olson Memorial Lecture; the speaker, Dr. Thomas Bertonneau Dr. Dale Matcheck Against this backdrop is the hysteria SUNY - Oswego Northwood University Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Dr. Brad Birzer Charles Meiser of students on campus who demand Hillsdale College Lake Superior State University (ret.) The Federalist Society established this Dr. Peter Boettke intellectual childproofing to shield them George Mason Glenn Moots annual lecture 15 years ago to honor a University Northwood University from contrarian viewpoints. Trigger life cut short. A lawyer and commentator Dr. Theodore Bolema Dr. George Nastas III warnings, safe spaces, shouting down Mercatus Center Marketing Consultants with a distinguished career in public Michael Clark Todd Nesbit opponents and lodging protests over Hillsdale College Ohio State University service, Barbara Olson was a great friend Dr. Stephen Colarelli Dr. John Pafford graduation speakers all flow from the Central Michigan Northwood University of the Federalist Society and the ideas University same troubling assumption that truth can Dr. Mark Perry it espouses — individual liberty, limited Andrew Coulson University of Michigan be attained through a militantly enforced Cato Institute - Flint government and the rule of law. Olson died Dan Crane Lawrence W. Reed silence. Occupy Wall Street has devolved University of Michigan Foundation for on Sept. 11, 2001, a passenger on American Law School Economic Education to Occupy My Bubble. Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into Dr. Richard Cutler Gregory Rehmke University of Michigan Economic Thinking/ the Pentagon. It would be easy enough to deride the (ret.) E Pluribus Unum Films Dr. Chris Douglas Dr. Steve Safranek childish expectation that all disagreement University of Michigan Private Sector Cotton used his address to highlight - Flint General Counsel can be avoided. Instead, we should America’s exceptional promise, both for Dr. Jefferson Edgens Dr. Howard Schwartz recognize an opportunity to defend one of Thomas University Oakland University those born here and those who would Ross Emmett Dr. Martha Seger the pillars of the idea of America. As a free James Madison College Federal Reserve Board come: “We should take pride that we live in (ret.) people we are eager to embrace vibrant Sarah Estelle a nation people are willing to die to reach, Hope College James Sheehan Deutsche Bank debate. Justice Louis Brandeis explained Dr. David Felbeck not escape.” Our duty, he said, is to do more University of Michigan Securities this when he wrote, “Freedom to think (ret.) Rev. Robert Sirico than simply pay tribute to Olson and the Acton Institute for the Dr. Burton Folsom as you will and to speak as you think are Hillsdale College Study of Religion and thousands killed that day, but to live lives Liberty means indispensable to the discovery and John Grether that preserve and advance liberty. Cotton’s Northwood University Dr. Bradley Smith Capital University Law remarks were especially poignant as news spread of political truth. … Discussion Dr. Michael Heberling School Baker College Dr. John Taylor of the Paris terror attacks came to us that affords ordinarily adequate protection David Hebert Wayne State University Ferris State University very day. against the dissemination of noxious Dr. Richard K. Vedder Michael Hicks Ohio University Ball State University doctrine.” Those who would silence Prof. Harry Veryser Jr. Later that night my colleague Patrick Dr. Ormand Hook University of Detroit speech would suffocate democracy. Mecosta-Osceola Mercy Wright and I walked down to a symbol Intermediate School District John Walter Jr. of a different era of crisis. Abraham Sacrifice, equality, duty and free expression. Dow Corning Robert Hunter Corporation (ret.) Lincoln’s words etched in marble and Ideas worth the founding of a nation, and Mackinac Center for Public Policy Dr. William Wilson Economic Consultant Dr. King’s 1963 speech at the Lincoln