Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Litigation Blogs -> The Gavel

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Litigation

: The Gavel

Editorial Blasts ?Gong Show? at MI High Court

By Peter Hardin

ADVERTISEMENTS

An editorial in the Toledo Blade outright ridicules the Michigan Supreme Court for its conduct, and asks whether the time is right to seek reforms in the way voters elect their high court justices.

The editorial lays partial blame on “the bizarre system by which Michigan justices are nominated by the two major political parties.” It says partisan politics is polarized, the justices are ideological, and in “a disgraceful spectacle, shadowy groups have spent millions of dollars on TV ads attacking the reputation of Supreme Court incumbents and challengers.”

What to do? The editorial, entitled “Order in the court,” continues:

“Michigan voters will be asked in November whether they want to call a constitutional convention, which could be one way to fix the Supreme Court mess. Another would be to craft a constitutional amendment that changes the way the state’s top judges are selected.

“In any event, Michigan’s highest court needs to stop looking like a judicial version of The Gong Show meets Let’s Make a Deal.”

Meanwhile, a Detroit Free Press editorial urges voters to press for greater disclosure of political spending in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, and it underscores concern about “the dominant role” of anonymous spending in judicial elections:

“In recent campaigns for control of the Michigan Supreme Court — an ostensibly nonpartisan institution whose members are sworn to uphold the law without fear or favor to any party — total campaign expenditures by keenly interested but anonymous benefactors exceeded the amount raised and spent by the candidates themselves.

“This scandalous trend will likely become even more pronounced as long as legal loopholes protecting the anonymity of such contributors — some of whom are undoubtedly litigants hoping to influence the outcome of specific state Supreme Court cases — are preserved.”

According to the editorial, Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land has declared that corporations and unions must disclose funding for political ads that urge election or defeat of candidates seeking statewide office. But her office doesn’t have authority to require such disclosure for sponsors of so-called issue ads, which fall short of urging election or defeat, she has said.

To learn more about controversies swirling around the Michigan Supreme Court, click here for earlier Gavel Grab posts.

Full post as published by The Gavel on September 08, 2010 (boomark / email).