When it comes to the number of new laws passed, Michigan’s divided Legislature made 2025 a historically unproductive year. Still, in last-minute votes, they sent a flurry of bills Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s way, giving the governor a chance to cap the year celebrating bipartisanship with a bill-signing spree. With a Republican-controlled Michigan House of Representatives and a Democratic-controlled Michigan Senate, Whitmer has made finding common ground across partisan lines a key talking point and celebrated the bills she approved as a sign of collaboration across the aisle. "I'll work with anyone to lower costs for Michiganders, protect consumers, keep kids safe, and cut red tape," Whitmer said in a statement Dec. 23 included in a news release from her office announcing her signature on 36 bills. "These commonsense bills will build on the progress we've made, make a difference for Michiganders, and help more individuals, families and small businesses 'make it' in Michigan." Here's a look at some of the bills Whitmer signed into law: 'Taylor Swift' anti-bot bills signed into law Michigan now has a law banning bots that circumvent ticket sales limits or an online waiting queue for concerts, sports games and other events at entertainment venues. Michigan's attorney general can now investigate potential violations. Violators face a maximum civil fine of $5,000 for each ticket. Dubbed the "Taylor Swift" bills in reference to hiccups in the Eras Tour ticket sales, with Whitmer's signature, Michigan joins many other states that have enacted laws cracking down on ticket bots. Proponents argue bots bulk buying tickets leave fans facing excessive prices for tickets on the resale market. Federal law already prohibits scalpers from using technology to skirt ticket purchase limits or use a false identity to buy tickets. But a state law gives Michigan’s attorney general new authority to act. Entertainment company Live Nation – which owns Ticketmaster – expressed support for the bills during a legislative hearing earlier this year. Ticket exchange and resale company StubHub also celebrated the passage of the legislation. Temporary locks in child care centers A package of bills Whitmer signed will allow child care facilities in Michigan to install devices that can temporarily lock doors without violating fire codes. The new law is aimed at enabling child care centers to use the same kind of safety technology available to schools in the event of a shooting or other intruder situation. Surveying the Michigan-Indiana border A survey of the Michigan-Indiana border now has more time to be completed under legislation Whitmer signed, which also enables the Michigan-Indiana State Line Commission to fund counties' survey efforts. The last survey of the border was carried out in 1827, and many markers from that survey have rotted, according to Bridge Michigan. The new law aims to remove any uncertainty over the state boundary lines. Non-alcoholic beers at Michigan breweries Currently, Michigan breweries can only sell their own beer in their tasting rooms, but a new law allows them to start selling nonalcoholic beer purchased from wholesalers. Whitmer also approved a change in regulations to allow the names and logos of Michigan colleges and universities to appear on alcohol containers sold by vendors at those schools, according to a summary of the legislation. Alcohol licenses at community colleges Following Whitmer's approval, the state's Liquor Control Commission will now be able issue licenses to serve alcohol at Macomb Community College and Wayne County Community College, along with some other schools. And a forthcoming Nino Salvaggio marketplace planned for Schoolcraft College will be able to sell alcohol, while a restaurant near the store can now serve alcohol for on-site consumption. Optional firearm safety instruction for Michigan students The Michigan Department of Education will soon collaborate with the Department of Natural Resources to create a new firearm safety instruction curriculum for middle and high schoolers that school districts and leaders could offer on an optional basis to students. Under legislation Whitmer signed to establish the curriculum, no real firearms will be used as part of the classroom instruction. Regulations for cottage food operators Whitmer signed legislation amending Michigan's regulations for "cottage food operations" that sell food generally made in a home kitchen – rather than a commercial one – and can be kept at room temperature without the risk of foodborne illness. The law aims to let those considering launching a food retail business to receive consumer feedback before scaling up and allow farmers to sell items such as jams at farmstands, according to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Among the changes to the law, the cap for annual cottage food operation sales will increase from $25,000 to $50,000, with a new $75,000 cap if an operation sells a product that costs $250 or more per unit. The new law also allows cottage food products to be sold online and through food delivery services. The sales threshold for exempting producers of prepackaged honey and maple syrup from food licensing requirements will also increase. First Amendment protections Legislation Whitmer signed aims to protect free speech rights from so-called "strategic lawsuits against public participation," allowing expedited judicial review for these so-called SLAPP suits. Michigan joins 38 states with anti-SLAPP laws, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Such laws are intended to ensure that litigation does not have a chilling effect on First Amendment activities. Racial discrimination in life insurance A change to the law increases the fine for those selling life insurance policies in the state that discriminate based on someone’s race or color to $500 to $1,000. Previously, fines ranged from $50 to $500. The law also no longer includes references to “colored persons.”

Kilmar Abrego Garcia can spend Christmas with his family after spending much of the year in custody. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, in Maryland, issued an order late on Dec. 22 requiring government attorneys to file a brief by Dec. 26 on whether they plan to take him back into immigration custody, and under what legal authority they would do so. His attorneys have until Dec. 30 to respond. A temporary restraining order that bars Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining him remains in place in the meantime. “This decision means Kilmar gets to sleep in his own bed in the next coming days, without the fear of being separated from his family and community in the middle of the night,” Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, an organizer with the community group CASA, said in an email. The Salvadoran citizen's case has become a lightning rod for both sides of the immigration debate as he fights to remain in the U.S. after a mistaken deportation to his home country, where he was imprisoned. Members of President Donald Trump's administration have accused him of being a member of the MS-13 gang, but he has vehemently denied the accusations and has no criminal record. Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported back to his home country, after concluding he faced danger there from a gang that targeted his family. In March, he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador anyway. Facing mounting public pressure and a court order, Trump’s Republican administration brought him back to the U.S. in June, but only after issuing an arrest warrant on human smuggling charges in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges and asked the judge to dismiss them. Abrego Garcia was held in a Tennessee jail for two months before he was freed to await trial in with his family in Maryland. However, he was only free for a weekend before he was detained by ICE. Trump administration officials have said he cannot stay in the U.S. Over the past few months, government attorneys have threatened to deport him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana and, most recently, Liberia. However, officials have made no effort to deport him to the one country he has agreed to go to — Costa Rica. Xinis has even accused the government of misleading her by falsely claiming that Costa Rica was unwilling to take him. On Dec. 11, Xinis ordered him released from ICE custody, finding that the government had no viable plan to deport him anywhere and could not keep him in detention indefinitely.

The Senate’s top Democrat urged his colleagues on Dec. 22 to take legal action over the Justice Department’s incremental and heavily redacted release of records pertaining to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced a resolution that, if passed, would direct the Senate to file or join lawsuits aimed at forcing the Justice Department to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted last month that required disclosure of records by last Friday. “Instead of transparency, the Trump administration released a tiny fraction of the files and blacked out massive portions of what little they provided,” Schumer, D-N.Y. said in a statement. “This is a blatant cover-up.” In lieu of Republican support, Schumer’s resolution is largely symbolic. The senate is off until Jan. 5, more than two weeks after the deadline. Even then, it’ll likely face an uphill battle for passage. But it allows Democrats to continue a pressure campaign for disclosure that Republicans had hoped to put behind them. The Justice Department said it plans to release records on a rolling basis by the end of the year. It blamed the delay on the time-consuming process of obscuring victims’ names and other identifying information. So far, the department hasn’t given any notice when new records arrive. That approach angered some accusers and members of Congress who fought to pass the transparency act. Records that were released, including photographs, interview transcripts, call logs, court records and other documents, were either already public or heavily blacked out, and many lacked necessary context. There were few revelations in the tens of thousands of pages of records that have been released so far. Some of the most eagerly awaited records, such as FBI victim interviews and internal memos shedding light on charging decisions, weren’t there. Nor were there any mentions of some powerful figures who’ve been in Epstein’s orbit, like Britain’s former Prince Andrew. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday defended the Justice Department’s decision to release just a fraction of the files by the deadline as necessary to protect survivors of sexual abuse by the disgraced financier. Blanche pledged that the Trump administration would meet its obligation required by law. But he stressed that the department was obligated to act with caution as it goes about making public thousands of documents that can include sensitive information. Blanche, the Justice Department’s second-in-command, also defended its decision to remove several files related to the case from its public webpage, including a photograph showing Trump, less than a day after they were posted. The missing files, which were available Friday but no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showed a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. Blanche said the documents were removed because they also showed victims of Epstein. Blanche said the Trump photo and the other documents will be reposted once redactions are made to protect survivors. “We are not redacting information around President Trump, around any other individual involved with Mr. Epstein, and that narrative, which is not based on fact at all, is completely false,” Blanche told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Blanche said Trump, a Republican, has labeled the Epstein matter “a hoax” because “there’s this narrative out there that the Department of Justice is hiding and protecting information about him, which is completely false.” “The Epstein files existed for years and years and years and you did not hear a peep out of a single Democrat for the past four years and yet ... lo and behold, all of a sudden, out of the blue, Senator Schumer suddenly cares about the Epstein files,” Blanche said. “That’s the hoax.”