Elections a Big Victory for Judicial Accountability
November 3, 2010
In addition to sending shock waves through Washington, voters on Tuesday sent another clear and unambiguous message: We want judges to be accountable to the people they serve.
In Nevada, voters crushed a ballot proposal that would have stripped them of their democratic right to vote for judges and transferred power to a tiny cabal of legal elites. With two-thirds of precincts reporting, according to a Las Vegas Sun report Question 1 was getting hammered 58% to 42%. Apparently, Sandra Day O’Connor’s incessant lobbying and 1:00 am robocalls backfired disastrously.
In Iowa, in a push-back against judicial arrogance, voters dumped three sitting Supreme Court justices who were up for retention – the first time in history that any justice lost a retention election. Voter outrage erupted when an activist court overstepped its authority by overturning the legislature’s ban on gay marriage and forcing the state to grant marriage licenses to gay couples.
In Michigan, conservatives regained control of the Supreme Court, with Robert Young and Mary Beth Kelly defeating trial lawyer-backed opponents. Rule of law justices will once again be a majority on Michigan’s high court.
(For additional state court election results, I recommend Ed Whelan/Gary Marx’s updates over at Bench Memos and the Legal Newsline’s rundown.)
As a recent report by the American Justice Partnership (which I run) reveals, the uber-liberal Open Society Institute has spent over $45 million in the last decade in an attempt to fundamentally alter America’s judiciary. Every so-called “reform” the Soros-bankrolled network and its leader, Justice at Stake, support, including “merit” selection, is aimed at reducing the power and input of ordinary citizens when it comes to deciding who will serve us on the bench. On Tuesday, voters loudly proclaimed that even George Soros’ millions can’t buy our courts.
The Stakes in Michigan
October 8, 2010
Professor Gary Wolfram of Hillsdale College has a great piece in today’s Detroit News on the dangers of an activist judiciary. Rallying Nobel Prize winning economist Friedrich Hayek and Founder James Madison to the cause, Wolfram rightly asserts that “if the laws are so unpredictable that no one who knows what the law is today can know what it will be tomorrow, then we have lost an important part of our democratic society.”
Wolfram continues:
“The Michigan Supreme Court race is important because it is really a decision about whether or not Michigan will have the Rule of Law….The Republican candidates, Bob Young and Mary Beth Kelly, have strong records of standing for the Rule of Law. Both believe that the role of the Supreme Court is to protect the constitution, not to alter or amend it.”
Calling out the negative economic consequences of an activist judiciary, Wolfram points out:
“Since the 2008 election … the [new] court majority has moved away from the certainty that allows our market system to operate. The current court has overturned more than a dozen legal precedents in less than two years. These decisions have created an environment where no one knows how the law will be interpreted. This is great for trial lawyers, who must be hired in order to battle for clients on both sides of the issues, but adds to the economic woes of the state. There are 50 others states and the rest of the world in which to start or expand a business and the makeup of the court will have a huge effect on where new business activity occurs.”
Both Young and Kelly believe:
“The constitution is not to be reinterpreted and the laws rewritten at every turn. Whether Michigan emerges from double digit unemployment and falling personal income depends to a good extent on the makeup of the 2011 State Supreme Court, which in turn depends on who is elected on November 2.”
Justice Young, by the way, was recently named the first recipient of the American Justice Partnership’s “Guardian of Justice” award.
MI Justice Robert Young: “Guardian of Justice”
September 28, 2010
Today the organization that I run, the American Justice Partnership, announced that Michigan Supreme Court Justice Robert Young is our first annual recipient of the “Guardian of Justice” award. Justice Young epitomizes the criteria we considered when making our selection: exhibits judicial restraint, strict follower of the rule of law, defender of the U.S. Constitution, faithful adherent to the intent of our nation’s Framers, model jurist.
Here’s the background on the nomination and the press release announcing the award.
NYT Letter To Editor: Merit Selection Drives Politics Underground
September 17, 2010
Today’s New York Times publishes a letter to the editor from Clifford Taylor, former Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. Last week, Chief Justice Taylor participated in the Heritage Foundation launch event of Justice Hijacked, a new report just released by the organization I run, American Justice Partnership. Here’s an excerpt from the letter:
“…[T]he cleverly but inaccurately named merit selection system, merely drives the politics of judicial selection underground, outside of public scrutiny. Merit selection makes our courts less transparent and less accountable to the people they serve, while turning the power to pick judges over to legal special interest groups that have their own ideological leanings.
“There will always be politics involved in judicial selection, regardless of the method chosen. The real question is whether we want the debate to take place openly in the public square, or behind closed doors with false proclamations that merit commissions try to determine only which prospective judge is best qualified.”
Detroit News on Soros’ Campaign to “Kill Judicial Elections”
September 14, 2010
In today’s Detroit News, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Jeffrey Hadden authors a column on the report my organization, American Justice Partnership, released last week. The report, “Justice Hijacked,” brings to light the $45 million+ national campaign that Soros’ Open Society Institute is quietly funding in an effort to eliminate democratic judicial elections in favor of so-called “merit” selection. As American Courthouse readers know, under “merit” selection a panel of legal elites meets behind closed doors to select judges for state courts.
Hadden’s column is a must-read. Here’s an excerpt:
“There is a human tendency to which judges and lawyers are no less prey than members of other professions to be self-serving and self-aggrandizing. A lot of lawyers and judges would like an ever-expanding sphere of power in which judges and lawyers get to make all of the decisions in a society and everyone else has to pay their fees while they do it.
“It’s not a bad thing for ordinary voters to have a chance to remind them that they answer to the public, not each other. An old joke has it that elections for judges produce politicians and appointments for judges produce friends of politicians. If we’re going to have politicians involved in the process, we ought to do so openly, where everyone can see what’s going on.”
Hadden’s argument is an important one that needs to be heard, especially in Michigan. The anti-election crowd is pushing for a Constitutional Convention in hopes of changing the state Constitution, eliminating elections, and installing “merit” panels for judicial selection.
“Cynical Maneuvering”… A “Disdainful Ploy”
August 30, 2010
An on-target Detroit News editorial today sums up the disgraceful way Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Weaver concluded her disgraceful career on the bench – by handing her seat over to soon-to-be-former Governor Granholm and shifting control of the court to liberal activists. Fortunately, the voters of Michigan will have a chance to make their voices heard in November.
Judicial Coup D’etat on Michigan Supreme Court; Weaver the Deceiver Plays “Politics at its Worst”
August 27, 2010
Democrats have seized control of the Michigan Supreme Court as a result of a politically-rigged, backroom deal hatched months ago by Governor Jennifer Granholm and former Justice Betty Weaver.
In a surprise move, Weaver has stepped down from the bench, allowing Granholm a clear path to appoint hand-picked, trial-lawyer-friendly judge, Alton Davis. Granholm’s appointment goes into effect immediately and does not require approval by the state legislature.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not shedding a single tear in saying adios to Weaver. She has been an embarrassment to the bench for years. Detroit Free Press columnist, Brian Dickerson, famously summed up Weaver’s judicial acumen this way in a 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.”
A well-known perk-grubber, she fought tooth-and nail to cling to a taxpayer funded car and a $60,000/year personal office. To top it all off, some of her fellow justices filed a complaint against her with the Judicial Tenure Commission earlier this year.
But this latest sleazeball move is an historic low, even for the likes of Weaver.
In an interview with the Detroit News, Weaver described a deal that makes the old Tammany Hall crowd look like a bunch of amateurs. She took credit for orchestrating the deal over the past several months:
“…first asking Davis whether he would be willing to replace her, then telling Granholm she would resign if Davis of Grayling [MI] was named to her seat. Weaver said Granholm first got in touch with Davis around June.”
Saul Anuzis of the Republican National Committee calls the whole affair “politics at its worst.” Josh Venable of the Michigan Republican Party has rightly called for an investigation into the inside dealings to see if any horse-trading or promises were made to make the deal go through.
As for Alton Davis? Hard to imagine the man can look himself in the mirror. Even harder to believe he can ever have any credibility as an unbiased Justice considering his role in this shoddy, shady exercise.
The most shameful result of this entire charade is that Gov. Granholm has completely excluded ordinary voters from choosing Weaver’s successor. While Davis will have to face the voters in November, he now does so as an “incumbent,” with all of the advantages incumbency provides. If Davis has any respect for the court – and for the people of Michigan – he should step down and let the voters select the next Michigan Supreme Court Justice.
Beware of Calls to Change Michigan Judicial Elections
July 22, 2010
A recent Lansing State Journal editorial called upon Michigan voters to “junk” state Supreme Court elecitons.
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Robert Young has weighed in with an excellent commentary taking issue with the LSJ and others who advocate eliminating democratic judicial elections such as George Soros and former US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
I recommend reading Justice Young’s piece in its entirety, but here are a few gems: Read more
More On Michigan Case: “Who Knew Carbon Monoxide Kills”?
May 26, 2010
Walter Olson at Overlawyered links to a great piece by Daniel Fisher of Forbes. (I blogged on this earlier this week).
Fisher’s piece, “Who Knew That Carbon Monoxide Kills?”, concerns the lawsuit over the death of a Michigan man by carbon monoxide poisoning. The man, an experienced mechanic, died while repairing his car inside his closed garage while the engine idled. His family charges the muffler repair kit manufacturer with failing to warn about the dangers of repairing mufflers indoors.
The trial judge dismissed the case for reasons, Fisher notes, “that should be obvious to anyone born in the 20th Century.” Namely, running an engine inside a closed garage is dangerous! Read more
Michigan Court Overturns Common Sense
May 24, 2010
A Michigan man with experience as a mechanic and a history of repairing engines died of carbon monoxide poisoning after letting a car run in a closed garage while trying to repair a muffler. The man’s family sued the manufacturer of the muffler repair kit for failing to warn about the dangers of repairing mufflers indoors. A Michigan trial court originally threw out the case, but the Court of Appeals reversed the ruling and the suit will now go to trial. Writing for the minority (and for common sense), Judge Kirsten Frank Kelly noted:
“In my view, defendants had no duty to warn of the dangers associated with another manufacturer’s product. Further, assuming for the sake of argument that such a duty existed, running the engine of a car in a small, enclosed space, such as a garage, is an obvious material risk to a reasonably prudent product user and would be especially obvious to a person like the decedent whose employment involved servicing and repairing engines.”
Judge Kelly also pointed out that it is “undisputed” that the muffler repair kit did not create the carbon monoxide poisoning; rather it was the man’s “misuse of the vehicle in an enclosed space” that caused the harm. It will now be up to a Michigan jury to decide whether justice and common sense still apply in the state.