The Michigan Constitution is the state’s governing charter, in force since January 1, 1964, after voters approved it in an April 1963 special election.1Michigan Legislature. Constitution of the State of Michigan It defines the rights every Michigan resident holds against the state government, sets up the legislature, governor, and courts, protects local self-rule, and gives voters direct tools to pass laws and amend the constitution itself. In several areas it goes further than the U.S. Constitution, and in a few it imposes limits — on taxing power, on legislative terms, on who draws district lines — that most states do not have.
Rights the State Government Cannot Take Away
Article I is Michigan’s Declaration of Rights. Section 4 protects religious liberty in two directions: no one can be forced to worship, and no one can be forced to support any church or religious teacher. Section 5 guarantees freedom of speech and press. Section 6 recognizes an individual right to keep and bear arms for personal defense and defense of the state.2Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution – Article I Declaration of Rights
Section 11 protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, and Michigan amended it to extend that protection explicitly to electronic data and electronic communications. A warrant still requires probable cause supported by oath, and it has to describe the place to be searched or the data to be accessed.2Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution – Article I Declaration of Rights
The newest major addition is Section 28, adopted in 2022 through Proposal 22-3. It establishes a fundamental right to reproductive freedom covering pregnancy, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility treatment. The state may regulate abortion after fetal viability but cannot prohibit it where a health care professional determines it is medically indicated, and no one may be penalized for their pregnancy outcomes.3Michigan House of Representatives. Ballot Proposal 3 of 2022
How the Three Branches Are Organized
Article III separates the powers of government and prohibits anyone exercising power in one branch from exercising power in another, except where the constitution itself creates an exception, such as the governor’s veto role in lawmaking.4Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution Article III Section 2 – Separation of Powers of Government
The Legislature
Article IV places legislative power in a 38-member Senate and a 110-member House, elected from single-member districts. Senators serve four-year terms concurrent with the governor; representatives serve two years.5Ballotpedia. Article IV, Michigan Constitution
Michigan is one of a handful of states with legislative term limits.6National Conference of State Legislatures. The Term-Limited States Under Article IV, Section 54, as amended by voters in 2022, no person may serve as a state representative or state senator for combined terms totaling more than 12 years. The prior version had set separate six-year and eight-year caps for the House and Senate; the new rule lets a legislator split those 12 years between chambers however voters choose to elect them.7Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution Article IV Section 54 – Limitations on Terms of Office of State Legislators
A 2018 amendment, Proposal 18-2, took the power to draw legislative and congressional district lines away from the legislature and gave it to an Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. The 13-member commission consists of four Democrats, four Republicans, and five unaffiliated members, randomly selected by the Secretary of State from applicants. A final map requires at least seven votes, including at least two from each partisan group and two from the independents.8Michigan House of Representatives. Ballot Proposal 2 of 2018
The Governor
Article V vests executive power in the governor, who executes the laws and directs state agencies.9Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution Article V Section 1 Every bill the legislature passes goes to the governor, who has 14 days to sign it, veto it, or let it become law without a signature. A veto returns the bill to its chamber of origin, where a two-thirds vote in both chambers can override. If the legislature adjourns before the 14 days run and the governor has not signed, the bill dies — Michigan’s version of a pocket veto.10Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution Article IV Section 33
The Courts
Article VI, Section 1 creates what the constitution calls “one court of justice,” divided into the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, circuit courts of general jurisdiction, probate courts, and any limited-jurisdiction courts the legislature creates by a two-thirds vote.11Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution Article VI Section 1 Every Michigan judge operates within that single system, with the Supreme Court at the top.
Direct Voter Power
Some of the most consequential changes to Michigan law in recent decades did not come from the legislature. They came from voters using the initiative and referendum powers in Article II, Section 9.
Citizens can propose new laws by collecting signatures from registered voters equal to at least 8 percent of the total votes cast for all candidates for governor in the last gubernatorial election. They can reject a law already passed by the legislature through a referendum, which requires signatures equal to 5 percent and must be filed within 90 days after the legislative session that enacted the law ends.12Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution – Article II
When an initiative petition reaches the legislature, lawmakers have 40 session days to pass it unchanged or reject it. If they reject it, it goes on the next general election ballot. The governor has no veto over a law enacted this way. Repealing or amending a voter-passed initiative law takes either another vote of the people or a three-fourths supermajority in both chambers.12Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution – Article II
Changing the constitution itself goes through Article XII, which offers three routes:
- By legislative proposal (Section 1): two-thirds of the members elected and serving in each chamber place the amendment on the ballot, where a simple majority approves it.13Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution Article XII Section 1
- By citizen petition (Section 2): signatures from registered electors equal to at least 10 percent of the votes cast for governor at the last gubernatorial election, with the full text of the amendment on the petition.14Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution Article XII Section 2 – Amendment by Petition and Vote of Electors
- By constitutional convention (Section 3): the question of calling a convention for general revision appears on the ballot every 16 years, beginning in 1978, and the legislature can place it on the ballot at other times as well. The question last appeared in 2010 and returns in 2026.15Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution Article XII Section 3
Every path ends at the ballot. No amendment or revision takes effect without a majority vote of the people.
Local Government and Home Rule
Article VII sets up the layer of government below the state. Each organized county is a body corporate with a board of supervisors made up of one member from each organized township plus city representation as the law provides.16Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution Article VII Townships are recognized as separate corporate bodies with their own administrative powers.
Sections 21 and 22 authorize the incorporation of cities and villages and grant them home rule: the authority to frame, adopt, and amend their own charters and pass local ordinances, so long as those do not conflict with the state constitution or state law.17Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution of 1963 – Article VII In practice, this gives Michigan cities substantial freedom to structure their governments and address local issues without case-by-case approval from Lansing.
Education
Article VIII treats education as a constitutional obligation of the state. Section 2 requires the legislature to maintain and support a system of free public elementary and secondary schools.18Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution of 1963 – Article VIII Section 2 Section 3 creates a State Board of Education with general supervision over public education, including adult education and instruction in state institutions, but not over universities that grant bachelor’s degrees.19Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution 1963 – Article VIII Education
Those universities get their own constitutional treatment. The University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University each have a constitutionally established governing board — the Board of Regents, the Board of Trustees, and the Board of Governors, respectively — with general supervision of the institution and control of its expenditures. Other public universities granting bachelor’s degrees are governed by boards of control with comparable authority.19Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution 1963 – Article VIII Education That status makes Michigan’s major public universities among the most independent in the country.
Tax and Spending Limits
Article IX constrains how the state raises and spends money. Section 1 requires the legislature to impose taxes sufficient to pay state government expenses. Section 3 requires uniform general property taxation of real and tangible personal property (except for school operating taxes) and prohibits any graduated income tax, which is why Michigan’s income tax is a single flat rate applied to everyone.20Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution of 1963 – Article IX
Section 6 caps general property taxes at 15 mills per dollar of assessed valuation, with the operative limit reduced after Proposal A in 1993 by the mills previously allocated for local school district operating purposes. Section 28 imposes a revenue-based spending cap: state expenses in any fiscal year cannot exceed the revenue limit set in Sections 26 and 27, plus federal aid and any surplus carried forward.21Michigan Legislature. Michigan Constitution Article IX Section 28 Section 11 establishes a dedicated School Aid Fund that can only be used for aid to school districts, higher education, and school employees’ retirement systems.22Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency. Overview of K-12/School Aid
How It Fits With Federal Law
The Michigan Constitution operates under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which means federal law prevails where the two conflict.23Legal Information Institute. Supremacy Clause The federal government does not pre-approve state constitutional provisions, and in areas states traditionally regulate, federal preemption applies only where Congress has made its intent clear.
In the other direction, a state constitution can offer stronger protections than the federal one. Michigan’s explicit search-and-seizure protection for electronic data, its flat-tax requirement, and its reproductive-freedom amendment all go beyond what the U.S. Constitution requires. Federal courts generally do not disturb a state court ruling that rests on adequate and independent state constitutional grounds, so Michigan courts interpreting Michigan’s Declaration of Rights can reach results more protective of individual liberties than a federal court would under the U.S. Bill of Rights.