Today, a federal judge is hearing oral arguments in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan on behalf of the Green Party of Michigan, the Libertarian Party of Michigan, the Reform Party of Michigan, the Metro Times newspaper, and the political consulting firm Winning Strategies. The parties, consulting firm, and newspaper are challenging the August 2007 primary law that requires Michigan's Secretary of State to provide party preference declarations only to the Democratic and Republican Parties. Because Michigan law does not require voters to register by party, party declaration information is considered "valuable" to political parties, candidates, the media, and researchers. However, under the current law, anyone other than the two major parties who "uses" the information--dubbed "secret" in the law--could be punished by a 93-day, $1,000 misdemeanor.

The ACLU says that the law unfairly gives preference to the two major parties while making it a crime for others to use or acquire the information. In their legal complaint, the ACLU alleges that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as the First Amendment by preventing the media from commenting and reporting on matters of public interest relating to voter party preference information.

Last month, an injunction was granted prohibiting the Secretary of State from distributing the party preference declarations solely to the two major parties.