A Memorandum to the Michigan Independent Citizens
Redistricting Commission

Authored by Stephen Markman
Commissioned by Hillsdale College

“The new Commission has the opportunity either to separate or to unite—to separate our people as members of interest groups and identity categories or to unite them as equal citizens, entitled to an equal role in the electoral process. Furthermore, the Commission is positioned to influence similar amendments being considered by other states, which are now assessing the Michigan experience. This memorandum presumes that in ratifying the Amendment, the people were doing exactly what was heralded at the time: they were establishing a redistricting process at whose core would be “voters not politicians” and not “reimagining” their democracy or experimenting with “new theories of representation.””

Stephen Markman is a Professor of Constitutional Law at Hillsdale College, having taught here for nearly three decades. He served on the Michigan Supreme Court for 21 years before retiring in 2020.