The order directs the state board of examiners to certify the Reproductive Freedom for All petition as sufficient and eligible for ballot placement. This comes after the board deadlocked in a 2-2 vote on whether to certify the ballot initiative last week, prompting Reproductive Freedom for All to ask the Supreme Court to intervene. The measure will appear on the ballot as Proposition 3, which would establish an “individual right to reproductive freedom, including the right to make and carry out all decisions related to pregnancy.” Supporters of the amendment say it would block Michigan’s 1931 abortion law, which bans all abortions except to save the life of the mother. “We are energized and motivated now more than ever to restore the protections lost under Roe,” Darci McConnell, communications director of the Reproductive Freedom for All campaign, said in a statement Thursday after the ruling. “This confirms that more than 730,000 voters read, signed and understood the petitions,” McConnell added, and that “the opposition’s claims are simply designed to distract from our effort to preserve the abortion rights we had under Roe for almost 50 years. “ In its staff report to the council, the Board of Elections estimated the petition had 596,379 valid signatures — about 146,000 more than the minimum required for certification.
Opponents, however, took issue with the proposed amendment because of the lack of spacing between the petition’s words. In its ruling Thursday, the state Supreme Court pointed to a 2012 ruling that said the board’s duty with respect to petitions is limited to determining the form and content and whether there are enough signatures. Michigan law requires petitions to have the full text of the amendment after the summary and be printed in 8-point type. The court said that “regardless of the existence or extent of the space, all the words stand and remain in the same order and it is not disputed that they are printed in 8 points.” “In this case, the meaning of the words has not changed because of the alleged insufficient distance between them,” the court wrote. “Assuming that the challengers’ objection for the time being represents a challenge to the ‘form’ of the petition which the Board properly considered, the petition has satisfied all statutory form requirements and, therefore, the Board has a clear legal duty to certify the petition.” “ In a concurring opinion, Chief Justice Bridget McCormack criticized the two Republican council members who voted against the certification, saying it would “disenfranchise millions of Michiganders.” “What a sad sign of the times,” he wrote. Judge David Viviano dissented, writing that he would not have found that the petition complied with Michigan law and that the board acted “correctly” in denying certification. “Failure to include the spaces presents the amendment in a way that is difficult to read and understand. So it may have the right words in the right order – as the majority here suggests – but the lack of critical word spacing makes the remaining text much more difficult to read and understand, and therefore something less than the “full text” required by the Constitution and statutes,” he argued. Justice Brian Zahra also dissented, saying he wished the court had heard oral arguments on the matter. He also called on the Legislature to amend Michigan’s election law to require the board to certify the ballot at least six weeks before the vote must be finalized. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said Thursday that the decision underscores “that the role of the Board of State Canvassers under the law is to affirm the will of the voters.” “I am grateful to the court for affirming this and hope the board will now continue its longstanding practice of working within its authority under Michigan law,” he tweeted. The board is scheduled to hold an in-person meeting at 10 a.m. Friday, according to a news release from the Michigan secretary of state’s office. This story has been updated with additional details. CNN’s Omar Jimenez and Ethan Cohen contributed to this report.