GOP attorney general hopefuls seek to overturn landmark contraception law, want election 'audit' Michigan Advance By: Jon King - February 20, 2022 9:19 am It may have been the last question of last weeks debate for the three men seeking the GOP nomination for Michigan attorney general, but the inquiry seeking their stances on a 1965 Supreme Court ruling has garnered the most attention. The question concerned the high courts decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, a landmark decision that struck down Connecticuts ban on the sale of contraception. Citing a right to marital privacy, Griswold helped to pave the way for 1973s Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion that many experts expect will be overturned or gutted by the right-wing-majority Supreme Court this year. However, at Friday nights forum at Alpena Community College, all three candidates Former House Speaker Tom Leonard (R-DeWitt), state Rep. Ryan Berman (R-Commerce Twp) and Kalamazoo-based attorney Matthew DePerno, indicated they thought the issue was wrongly decided and trampled on states rights.
After seeking clarification as to what the Griswold decision was, Leonard was the first to respond. This case, much like Roe v. Wade, I believe was wrongly decided, because this isit was an issue that trampled states rights and it was an issue that should have been left up to the states. Berman then echoed that, after indicating that he was unaware of the decision. You know, what? I wasnt familiar with Griswold vs. Connecticut, but Im an advanced legal researcher, so I pulled it up real quick to look what it was about, he said. And it says the court ruled that the Constitution did in fact protect the right of marital privacy against state restrictions on contraception. Again, I would have to look more into it and the reasoning behind it, but Im all about states rights and limiting federal, and especially federal, judicial activism. DePerno followed suit, saying, I didnt know we could have our phones up here. The line drew laughter from the audience and prompted Berman to quip, You gotta be quick. DePerno then continued, saying that the Griswold and Roe decisions were states right issues and predicted that the U.S. Supreme Court would rule that the privacy issue currently is unworkable. DePerno, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump and is known for espousing conspiracy theories, then finished with a flourish. We need to start defending state rights as attorney generals, across this country, he said. Too many people, even in our own party, too many people have lost the idea of what states rights means. They havent read the works of our Founding Fathers. They havent read The Federalist Papers. They continue to push the idea that we need to give rights away to the federal government. We dont. We need to take state rights back. We need to stand in our borders. When the feds come and try to take our rights, we need to stand as citizens in Michigan and hold the line and protect states rights.
While that drew a hearty round of applause from Fridays audience, it prompted a less than celebratory response from the woman all three candidates are hoping to replace this November. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, tweeted out afterward it was terrifying that the three Republicans running for Michigan attorney general just stated that they oppose the ruling in Griswold v Connecticut which outlawed prosecuting married couples for using contraception.
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Fridays debate also tackled another issue that figures prominently in GOP politics, namely conducting a so-called forensic audit on Michigans 2020 election results. Despite over 250 state and local audits of those results which have confirmed President Joe Bidens more than 154,000 vote victory over former President Trump, persistent unproven claims of widespread voter fraud remain a core message for Republicans seeking office. Theres legislation sponsored by state Rep. Stevc Carra (R-Three River) for a so-called forensic audit and theres also a ballot measure. Earlier this month, there was a small protest at the Capitol attended by GOP leaders including Michigan GOP Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock. Leonard, who lost to Nessel in 2018, said he fully supported such an audit. I was a prosecutor in Flint for three years. There were times when tragic things would happen and you had to conduct an investigation to protect the integrity of the system, he said. When I look at a forensic audit, to me thats what a forensic audit would be doing, is protecting the integrity of this system. Our republic can not function if 50% of our population no longer trusts that when they go to vote, its not going to count or its not going to be accurate. Berman burnished his credentials on the issue by saying he sponsored a budget amendment for $5.5 million to conduct a forensic audit, which would include interviewing voters themselves.
In fact, its broader than that because it included canvassing and going out there and asking people who havent voted in 20 years and all of a sudden showed up in that election and ask them, Hey, was this you? Did you vote? I called it a comprehensive statewide election integrity review. Who can be against an integrity review? We should all be secure in knowing our election cant be compromised. Berman indicated, however, that the amendment was ultimately shot down by his partys leadership in the House. DePerno, who was involved in Arizonas sham audit by Trump supporters, was much more specific in what he wanted a forensic audit to include, saying that in addition to taking a deep dive into a computer system he also wants to examine the paper used in the voting machines. You cant do one without the other, he said. Doing one without the other is essentially meaningless. You must do both. And I tell you, thats why they always say to us we cant see the paper ballots. DePerno also falsely claimed that it was pointless to determine what happened in the 2020 election. I know what happened because I did the work. I examined these systems. I know how fraud occurred in this state, he said. Those same assertions were dismissed last year in a report issued by the Republican-controlled Michigan Senate Oversight Committee, which determined DePernos conclusions were demonstrably false and based on misleading information and illogical conclusions. DePerno also led the charge when it came to investigating Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her policies toward caring for COVID-19 patients in state nursing homes, indicating he would seek charges and have her arrested. We will investigate and prosecute Gov. Whitmer for what she did with the nursing homes. She sent people to nursing homes against the medical advice of doctors who have said that it was dangerous. People would die. She did it anyway. She did it for political reasons, make no mistake. That is misconduct of office at the very minimum, he said. Whitmer administration officials say they were following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines when they allowed nursing home residents who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 to return to those facilities as long as they were housed in separate units. While a state auditor general report later determined there were nearly 2,400 more long-term care COVID-19 deaths in Michigan than had been reported by the Michigan Department of Health & Humans Services (DHHS), Director Elizabeth Hertel argued that the tally included facilities that were not required to report their COVID-19 deaths to the state. While Leonard and Berman also said they disagreed with the governors nursing home policy, both indicated that they would conduct full investigations before deciding whether or not to press charges. Leonard also used the discussion to take a shot directly at DePerno, saying that his statements would prejudice any investigation before it started. Any person thats running to be the chief law enforcement officials in the State of Michigan to stand here and say they are going to arrest someone on Day One, does not respect our system of justice, said Leonard. In fact, if there were ever charges brought against that individual, I can tell you the first thing the defense counsel is going to do. They are going to play the videos of that attorney general on the campaign stump making political promises that theyre going to arrest somebody and throw them in jail, and that case is going to be thrown out and that person is going to be acquitted.
Last month, DePerno sent out a graphic of Nessel in prison demanding to Lock her up in a fundraising pitch after she said that the fake Trump electors who attempted to enter the Michigan Capitol where the real Electoral College was meeting in December 2020 could be charged for violating the law. Other issues in which there was consensus among the candidates included Enbridge Energys Line 5 pipeline which runs under the Straits of Mackinac. All three said they were in favor of moving forward with having a tunnel built around the aging line, while Nessel continues to pursue a lawsuit in federal court that would close it down. The trio also made clear they would lift any state or federal COVID-19 mandates still in place when they take office, although most restrictions have already been lifted.
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