(credit: Vieilles Annonces)

On Thursday, Tesla filed a lawsuit against three Michigan officials (PDF)—Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, Attorney General Bill Schuette, and Governor Rick Snyder—on the grounds that the state is violating the electric vehicle company’s right to sell Teslas directly from the manufacturer instead of through a dealer.

Section 445.1574 of Michigan’s code prohibits any auto manufacturer from being able to “Sell any new motor vehicle directly to a retail customer other than through franchised dealers, unless the retail customer is a nonprofit organization or a federal, state, or local government or agency.”

Tesla’s complaint claims that this law violates “the Due Process, Equal Protection, and Commerce Clauses of the Constitution as applied to Tesla, by prohibiting Tesla from selling its vehicles directly to consumers and by precluding Tesla from performing service and repairs within the State.”