RISE UP
Special LWV Michigan newsletter about three urgent topics.
-
Dismantling Our Democracy
On February 14, 2025, the 105th birthday of the League of Women Voters, the Michigan League joined all other states and the District of Columbia in sending a letter to congressional leaders expressing strong concern over abandoning its duties and authorities under Article I of the US Constitution and urging leaders to address the unprecedented executive branch overreach threatening American democracy.
In the detailed letter to Congress, the League highlighted several recent executive branch actions that are causing significant harm to millions of Americans, including the undermining of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, attempts to end birthright citizenship, pause distribution of congressionally allocated federal funds, and dismantle federal agencies without proper congressional oversight.
-
Voter Suppression is Alive and Well
-
What is the SAVE Act? The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act would require documentary proof of citizenship in order to register or re-register to vote. Already, voters must attest to their citizenship to register to vote, but the SAVE Act would require that voters produce not just a birth certificate, but other identify documentation such as a marriage certificate, adoption paperwork and even divorce judgments if those life events impacted their legal name.
The SAVE Act isn’t about safeguarding elections — it’s about silencing voters. We must join together to oppose this!
This bill would especially burden military voters, tribal voters, rural voters, survivors of natural disasters, and the tens of millions of married women in America who have changed their names. Surveys show that eight in ten married women have changed their surname, meaning they do not possess a birth certificate that matches their current legal name and therefore could not present it as valid proof of citizenship.
Rural voters, working class voters, voters of color, and older Americans are less likely to hold a passport or readily accessible birth certificate, disproportionately harming their ability to vote under this bill.
Tell your congressional representatives to oppose the SAVE Act! You can find them HERE
-
Oil and Water Don’t Mix
The Great Lakes are a national treasure, holding 21% of the world’s fresh surface water and a critical resource for drinking water, tourism, recreation, and jobs. But for decades, these waters have been threatened by Canadian fossil fuel giant Enbridge’s Line 5, a 72-year-old crude oil pipeline. It runs through the Straits of Mackinac—a fragile, irreplaceable ecosystem protected by tribal treaty.
With a new administration in Washington, DC, prioritizing Big Oil, Michigan faces a renewed challenge in 2025 to protect this natural resource. However, the State of Michigan holds a powerful opportunity to act decisively by denying the permit to expand Line 5 into a tunnel through the Great Lakes.
Ask Gov. Whitmer and EGLE to deny the oil tunnel permit!
