The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on July 25 regarding the
dispute over whether opponents of the emergency manager law used the correct
point-size on the heading of their petition to repeal the law.
When Stand up for Democracy put together their petitions, they used 14
point size for the font they selected, but it apparently fell slightly short of
the 14 point using pica ruler when it was actually printed.
The trial court and then the Court of Appeals ruled the activists had
attained “substantial compliance” standard in the statute and ordered the
referendum to be certified for the ballot.
Chief Justice Robert Young, Jr. and Justice Markman have asked both sides
to address additional specifics. Both
are asking for discussion of whether the definitions of “point” and “type”
require a size measurement of the entire printer’s block or the size of the
actual character produced by the block.