SB50 designates Juneteenth a public holiday on June 19th. The act designates a list of days as public holidays and provides that they are to be treated as a Sunday for purposes of banking and the courts. The act also designates Saturday as a half-holiday starting at noon, with exceptions allowed.
The Michigan State Senate passed SB50 on May 17, 2023 by a vote of 37 to 1. We have assigned pluses to the nays because the U.S. observes 10 federal holidays and the state of Michigan already observes 11, and designating Juneteenth, which at the national level was voted as as “National Independence Day” instead of July 4. This falsely implies differing independence days based on race. This aligns with divisive strategies, akin to communist tactics of “dividing the people.”