LANSING — The state of Michigan must halt the distribution of earmark funding to two minor league baseball fields while a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the grants proceeds through the court system, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Court of Claims Judge Michael Gadola granted the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, a fiscally conservative group challenging the funding, a preliminary injunction that will halt further releases of money for the baseball fields.
The Mackinac Center had challenged the grants on the grounds that they violated the Michigan Constitution’s requirement that a distribution of public funds for local or private purposes must win a two-thirds majority vote in the House and Senate. The budget that included the funding was passed by the Legislature in the summer of 2024 in a 56-54 vote in the Michigan House and a 21-17 vote in the Senate.
“The court concludes that a likelihood exists that plaintiff will prevail on the merits on the issue whether the appropriations to both Jackson Field and Jimmy John’s Field served a local purpose rather than a general or statewide purpose, thus requiring the vote of two-thirds of the members elected to and serving in the Michigan House and Senate,” wrote Gadola, an appointee of Republican former Gov. Rick Snyder.
A request for comment sent Tuesday to Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office was not immediately returned.
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation called the decision a “major victory for Michigan taxpayers and the rule of law.”
“The Michigan Constitution is clear: Lawmakers cannot funnel taxpayer dollars to favored projects and private interests without meeting the constitutional supermajority requirement,” said Patrick Wright, who is vice president of legal affairs for the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, in a statement. “The court’s decision prevents additional unconstitutional spending while this case proceeds.”
The state’s 2025 fiscal year budget allocated $1 million to the city of Lansing-owned Jackson Field and $1.5 million to the privately owned Jimmy John’s Field in Utica. The Utica field is now known as the UWM Field, home to the four teams in the United Shore Professional Baseball League, an independent league.
The budget language granting the funding included a provision saying it was intended “for a public purpose.” But the Mackinac Center, which filed its suit in May 2025, argued the Legislature “cannot definitively declare whether a purpose is public in nature” and that the items required a two-thirds majority vote in each chamber.
The wording of the spending items, which identified the ballparks based on population markers, “disguises local purposes as general ones by using descriptors that seem open-ended in nature but could only apply to two specific ballparks,” Gadola wrote while summarizing the Mackinac Center’s position on the bill.
The Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity told the judge it had already entered into an agreement with Jimmy John’s Field and disbursed some of the funds, but had not done so for Jackson Field, home of the Lansing Lugnuts. At the point the state agency disclosed the distribution, it told the court it had distributed about $200,000 to Jimmy John’s Field.
As of Tuesday, nearly all of the $1.5 million for Jimmy John’s Field had been distributed, said Jason Moon, a spokesman for the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity. Only $332 of the Jimmy John’s grant had not been distributed.
None of the Jackson Field money has been distributed. The Jackson Field funding was among a number of projects to which House Republicans in December refused to give continuing work project status, effectively cutting off funding for the earmark. The House GOP’s action remains a subject of litigation.
The department told the court it was not adverse to the Mackinac Center’s lawsuit, so the attorney general, on behalf of the people, intervened and took an adverse position, according to Gadola’s decision.
The Attorney General’s Office argued both grants served a public, statewide purpose “because the grants were ‘aimed at enhancing and preserving recreational opportunities for Michigan residents,'” the judge’s ruling said.
But Gadola did not agree, noting that the baseball fields primarily benefited the immediate communities where they were located.
“In this case, plaintiff presents a compelling argument that the appropriations in question were for the benefit of the cities and counties where they are located rather than for the state as a whole,” Gadola wrote.
eleblanc@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Judge halts funding for Jackson Field in Lansing in earmark scuffle
Reporting by Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News / Lansing State Journal
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