The Hagan family, represented by attorneys from the Thomas More Society, filed a civil rights complaint against the city on March 16, in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Michigan.
The Hagans’ complaint centers on a 2013 city ordinance mandating landlords to provide new tenants with voter registration forms and “how to” information. It requests that the court declare portions of the ordinance unconstitutional and a violation of federal civil rights law.
“This is a blatant violation of the landlords’ First Amendment rights,” said Thomas More Society Special Counsel Erick Kaardal in a March 17 press release. “East Lansing is out of line.”
Kaardal likened it to the government “conscripting the local grocer to hand out property tax bills” while ringing up his customer’s orders.
“Why would the East Lansing City Council resort to unconstitutional means to register voters but to achieve a political end?” asked Kaardal in a March 20 phone interview with The Epoch Times.
East Lansing is the home of Michigan State University with its more than 50,000 students.
The population of the city of East Lansing was 46,854 in 2021.
Landlords Seek Injunction
The plaintiffs also asked the court for a permanent injunction to stop the city from enforcing the 10-year-old ordinance, now and in the future.According to the pleadings, the Hagans and other landlords had expressed their opposition to the measure as early as February 2013 at a public hearing held just before the adoption of the ordinance by the city.
At the time, landlord Tom Kashinski asked, “What does voter registration have to do with our relationship with our residents? What does it have to do with behavior issues or safety?... What is the next thing that you would like to require us to do that has nothing to do with our business?”
Collin Cronin, another landlord, stated, “Pushing political agendas or political emphasis isn’t something I believe should be pressed on landlords to do.”
The Penalty for Disobedience
Out of fear of being slapped with a civil infraction penalty, a fine the complaint says could be up to $1,000 and have implications on the landlords’ licenses, the plaintiffs obeyed the terms of the ordinance.A decade later the arguments against the measure remain the same.
Last week’s court filing asserts, “Increasing citizen participation in elections through registering voters is unrelated to renting a residence to tenants.”
Kaardal stated in the press release, that no matter how acceptable the idea of increasing voter participation is to some, those interests “cannot outweigh the First Amendment rights” of landlords who refuse to pass on the city government’s message.
“By compelling a landlord to inform and provide information to tenants regarding where to register to vote, or by engaging them to act as couriers of the municipality’s ideological messages to prospective tenants, East Lansing is infringing on landlords’ rights,” he said.
Advancing the Progressive Agenda
As precedent, Thomas More Society attorneys cite a 2020 case in Minnesota where a federal judge declared unconstitutional a similar ordinance involving Minneapolis and Saint Paul when those cities tried to require landlords to provide voter registration information to new tenants.Kaardal told The Epoch Times that he is concerned about every instance of what he called “biased voter registration programs.”
“Government should be a neutral player,” he said. “It should not be assisting progressives in accomplishing their political purposes.”
The Thomas More Society is a national, not-for-profit, public-interest law firm based in Chicago.
The Society is dedicated to restoring respect in law for life, family, religious liberty, and fair elections, according to its website.
