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Mich. Comp. Laws § 169.254

Contributions, expenditures, or volunteer personal services by corporation, joint stock company, domestic dependent sovereign, or labor organization; contribution to ballot question committee or independent expenditure committee; independent expenditures as to ballot questions; violation; penalty

Applied in 18 court decisions — leading case Austin v. Michigan State Chamber of Commerce (1990)

Most recently applied in 1A Auto, Inc. v. Director of the Office of Campaign and Political Finance (September 2018)

1976, Act 388, Eff

How often courts cite this section

1983199020002010201830
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

Sec. 54. (1) Except as otherwise provided in this section and section 55, and except with respect to loans made in the ordinary course of business, a corporation, joint stock company, domestic dependent sovereign, or labor organization shall not make a contribution or expenditure or provide volunteer personal services that are excluded from the definition of a contribution under section 4(3)(a). (2) An officer, director, stockholder, attorney, agent, or any other person acting for a labor organization, a domestic dependent sovereign, or a corporation or joint stock company, whether incorporated under the laws of this or any other state or foreign country, except corporations formed for political purposes, shall not make a contribution or expenditure or provide volunteer personal services that are excluded from the definition of a contribution under section 4(3)(a). (3) A corporation, joint stock company, domestic dependent sovereign, or labor organization may make a contribution to a ballot question committee or independent expenditure committee subject to this act. A corporation, joint stock company, domestic dependent sovereign, or labor organization may make an independent expenditure in any amount advocating for the election or defeat of a candidate, or the qualification, passage, or defeat of a ballot question and does not for this reason become a committee, unless it solicits or receives contributions in excess of $500.00 for the purpose of making the independent expenditure, but is subject to the independent expenditure reporting requirements under section 51. (4) A person that knowingly violates this section is guilty of a felony punishable, if the person is an individual, by imprisonment for not more than 3 years or a fine of not more than $5,000.00, or both, or, if the person is not an individual, by a fine of not more than $10,000.00.

Official source: Michigan Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Michigan statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.