Standing Up For Michigan Taxpayers
November 19, 2008
My post from last week on the plan by Michigan’s Supreme Court to close several satellite offices – which both the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press say would save suffering Michigan taxpayers $400,000 per year – seems to have hit a nerve. One reader all but called me a traitor to my party for criticizing Justice Betty Weaver’s vote to keep her $60,000+ per year digs in Traverse City.
Well, here at American Courthouse we call ‘em like we see ‘em – and Republican or not, Justice Betty Weaver has become an embarrassment to the court who is far more committed to protecting the perks and privileges of her office than helping long-suffering Michigan taxpayers or the court she serves.
For those readers unfamiliar with Justice Weaver’s antics, a little history may be in order. Ms. Weaver was first elected in 1994 and served as Chief Justice from 1998 to 1999 – until the court voted 6-1 to remove her. (She alone was steadfast in support of herself remaining Chief.) It was during her tenure as Chief that the Michigan Supreme Court ranked the worst in America, according to a University of Chicago study, not during the tenure of Chief Justice Taylor, as was erroneously reported in the recent campaign.
In 2005, Justice Weaver announced her resignation: “I intend to put my money where my mouth is, and step down in October 2005, after more than 10 years on the Supreme Court.” She then rescinded her resignation and pledged to fight – believe it or not – for term limits. Considering Justice Weaver has been hunkered down on the bench for 14 years, it’s hard to take seriously her claim that justices should be limited to one eight-year term.
Irony aside, Justice Weaver’s main goal in remaining on the court seems to be making the lives of her fellow justices miserable. As Detroit Free Press columnist Brian Dickerson put it in one 2007 column:
If you ran into Betty Weaver on a street corner and didn’t know she was a Michigan Supreme Court Justice, you might mistake her for a bag lady….Weaver can, in her most distracted moments, leave casual observers with the impression that she has temporarily lost her moorings in time and space. So it is tempting for her embarrassed colleagues on the state’s highest court to dismiss Weaver’s latest criticism of that august institution as the ravings of a lunatic.
Justice Weaver’s fight to keep her Traverse City office is reminiscent of her blowup last year when the rest of her colleagues on the court gave up their taxpayer-funded state cars without complaint. If she really believes Michigan Supreme Court Justices should only serve for 8 years she should lead by example and retire when her term is up in 2010 – if not sooner.