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Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey deprived people of the right to make their own choices, the Mississippi solicitor general who persuaded the Supreme Court to overturn Roe said at Hillsdale in D.C.’s annual Constitution Day Celebration last week. Scott Stewart, who spoke to alumni, students, faculty, and friends of the college at the Waldorf Astoria Washington D.C., aligned the fight for states to regulate abortions with the struggle for independence and civil rights. “I’ve never worked on a case like this,” he said. “As the case was unfolding, person after person who talked to me about the case said ‘I’m praying for you.’ That sticks with you.” Stewart, who graduated from Stanford Law School and clerked for Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, began working for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization during his first year in office. Stewart began his speech by laying out the background of Dobbs, saying Roe and Casey made it difficult for states to make their own laws about abortion – especially during the first 23 weeks of pregnancy, when a baby is much less likely to survive outside the womb. “The states kept try-
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Alumnus starts one of America's fastest growing companies By Alex Deimel Collegian Reporter
Hillsdale in DC hosts annual Constitution Day Celebration ing. They tried after Roe, they tried after Casey. The issue was just too important not to try, and so it went for decades,” he said. “Mississippi is one of the states that has long tried to protect life and health in the medical profession by regulating abortion.” When Mississippi proposed a law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks, lower courts struck it down because it fell outside of the viability window set in place by Roe and Casey. That’s when Stewart picked up the case. “It didn’t matter that the 15-week law applies when an unborn child is undeniably human – when risks to women surge and when the common abortion procedure is brutal,” he said. “The lower courts held that because the law prohibits abortions before viability, it was unconstitutional no matter what.” After months of deliberation, Stewart said, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Dobbs. He recounted the arguments he used to win the case, starting with Roe and Casey’s lack of constitutional basis. “Roe and Casey adopt a unique right, a right to end a human life. Nowhere else does the court recognize this,” Stewart said. “Nowhere else does the right to privacy, liberty, dignity, or autonomy mean a right to take a life.” Second, Roe and Casey
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Vol. 146 Issue 5 - September 22, 2022
Senior George Washington Fellows Abbee Elwell, David Swegle, Ashley Kaitz, Josh Barker, Gabs Bessette, and Emily Marsh (left-to-right) stand outside the Waldorf Astoria before assisting staff at the celebration. Courtesy | Emma Eisenman
By Ashley Kaitz Senior reporter
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robbed the people of their constitutional right to make their own decisions. “Roe and Casey undermine democratic government,” said Stewart. “The Constitution leaves the most important issues to the people, and Roe and Casey ended that. They block people from deciding one of the most important issues we face.” Third, supporters of Roe and Casey argue that women couldn’t be successful without a right to abortion, Stewart said. He disagreed. “The clinic quoted, ‘A right to abortion is critical to women’s success, and its absence would shackle women.’ That is all wrong,” he said. “Countless women and mothers have achieved both major career success and a rich family life without needing a right to abortion.” Stewart said the controversy surrounding the case was one of the greatest challenges he has faced. He said he was struck by the amount of people who cared more about maintaining a right to abortion than about remaining faithful to America’s founding documents. “I’m talking about people who know what our Constitution is, what our judiciary is, how vital they are, and yet act to destroy them. I don’t have to describe all that happened these past few months,” he said.
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A Hillsdale alumnus founded a multi-million dollar company which ranked as one of fastest growing companies in America. In 2014, Hillsdale alumni Alex Linebrink founded Passage, a ticketing company designed for medium-sized events. After eight years of hard work, the company sold its six millionth ticket this past summer and landed on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the country. At the time of its founding, Passage primarily focused on ticket sales for haunted houses, which played a big role in Linebrink’s childhood. “My father’s birthday is on Halloween, so when I was growing up, instead of cake and ice cream, every year we would build a haunted yard,” Linebrink said. “It became pretty popular. We were on the front page of the Hillsdale Daily News almost every year, and by the end of it, we would have around 1,500 people show up just on Halloween night.” Prior to starting Passage, Linebrink was the CEO and co-founder of Core Merchant, a payment technology company based in Detroit. After selling the company in 2014, Linebrink noticed someone attempting to sell haunted house tickets on Eventbrite, and realized how limited the platform was for events that were not one day,
one time, and one price. “My thesis with our Chief Technology Officer when we started this was that we can’t just make a business for haunted houses,” Linebrink said, “but if we can prove this works for haunted houses, then we can repeat this for all different types of event categories.” Linebrink’s idea took off. Five years after its founding, Passage had $800,000 in revenue from $11.6 million of ticket sales. In 2022, the company expects to earn $4.5 million in revenue. In addition to live events and attractions, Passage has made headway in the sports world. The company has become the official ticketing partner of NBC Sports and League Two of the United Soccer League. According to Linebrink, the COVID-19 pandemic allowed Passage to excel. He and his business partners took advantage of live events being canceled by creating virtual event platforms. “2020 was a time for us to really take advantage and excel instead of pulling back,” Linebrink said. “We built out ways for smaller to mid-sized event organizers and businesses to continue to connect with their audiences during a tough time, and we began working on a virtual events platform.” During the pandemic, Passage allowed venues to have time slots for their tickets in order to keep their customers socially distanced. In January 2020, Line-
brink hired Shane Smith as senior event expert, who worked in ticket sales for the Tennessee Titans and Detroit Red Wings prior to Passage. “When the pandemic began, the soccer teams we were partnered with stopped playing, so I began reaching out to different bands and performance venues pitching our virtual event system, which was able to keep many of these places afloat while they were unable to host live, in-person events,” Smith said. Passage’s Head of Marketing Kat Rembacki called Passage a “disruptor” in a “stale and old” industry. “The biggest differentiator for smaller to mid-sized events is that we are one solution for everything,” Rembacki said. “You can do all of your payments through one platform, whether that’s online ticket sales, in-person ticket sales, or concessions—you have it all on one system.” Passage was one of Michigan Celebrates Small Business' “50 Michigan Companies to Watch” earlier this year, and nearly tripled its revenue growth in the past three years, putting it at 2,055 on the Inc. 5000 list. “I think that the six millionth ticket milestone is super exciting because we’re showing the world what Michigan is capable of,” Rembacki said. “The innovation, the growth, and vision we’ve had is direct proof that it's possible to build something huge right here in Michigan.”
Alex Buchmann stands in front of a F-35B jet. Courtesy | Alex buchmann
Unvaccinated alumni held from service in Marine Corps By Libby McGivern Collegian freelancer The United States Marine Corps removed two Hillsdale graduates from their occupational specialties because they refused to comply with the military’s COVID-19 vaccination mandates. Brothers Alex Buchmann ’17 and Adam Buchmann ’20 were also blocked from deployment, promotion, transfer, or release from active duty. “Myself and the other Marines in my command were told that if we submitted religious exemptions we would be kicked out by Thanksgiving,” Adam said. “We submitted them anyway,
believing that it would be the end of our military careers.” On Sept. 14, the Marines rolled back punishments for service members seeking religious exemptions to the vaccine, including ending involuntary terminations and delays of promotions. But the change will not restore the positions of the Buchmanns in the Marines, according to Alex. “Maximum vaccination of the force will reduce transmission of disease, reduce the severity of disease among personnel who become infected, preserve medical resources, and facilitate mission accomplishment at the individual, unit, and organizational levels,” Capt. Ryan Bruce, Marine Corps spokesperson, told the Col-
legian on Wednesday. Alex graduated from Hillsdale with a major in politics and joined the Marines the following September, earning the status of captain. His younger brother, Adam, also majored in politics and rose to the position of first lieutenant. Alex’s training for his position as a fighter pilot took him across the country. He began training in Pensacola, Florida, and continued in Kingsville, Texas, where he flew his first jet, the T-45, and later the F-35B. Alex and his wife Olivia ’15 left Texas with their children for Beaufort, South Carolina.
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