Litigation

Former MI Justice Urges Public Campaign Financing

By Peter Hardin

Former Justice Elizabeth Weaver of the Michigan Supreme Court has offered a six-point proposal for reforming judicial selection in her state, including public financing for state Supreme Court campaigns.

Other reforms that she proposed in a Grand Rapids Press commentary include no political party nominations of prospective justices; term limits, “and a justice never would be eligible for reelection or appointment;” judicial elections to the state Supreme Court by district; transparency in campaign finance reporting requirements; and commissions of as many as 40 people for recommending judicial appointments to the governor.

A Michigan Messenger article highlighted her proposals, which focus on election reform. Justice Weaver, who resigned last year, summed up her concerns over transparency on the seven-member court this way:

“The need is for transparency and openness, not a secret club of seven justices joining together in voting blocks of at least four votes to promote agendas of partisan or special interests, personal agendas and bias and prejudices.”

It was recently announced that retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O?Connor will serve as honorary chairwoman for a task force established to examine the way Michigan selects state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals judges, and to propose reforms (see earlier Gavel Grab post).

In November, the Michigan Supreme Court censured Justice Weaver; its action responded to her disclosing during election season a partial transcript she had made from a secretly recorded conference with her fellow justices.

The Michigan task force, meanwhile, was the subject of a critical commentary in The Detroit News by Dan Pero, president of the American Justice Partnership.

Pero wrote that the task force is “not some good government reform mechanism, it’s a political power play, pure and simple. Michigan voters should beware of elite task forces bearing gifts, lest they find themselves sidelined when it comes to choosing some of our most important public servants ? our judges.”

In another development, newly installed Chief Justice Robert Young Jr. said he wants to see a smaller judiciary in Michigan, doing away with some appeals court and trial court positions, in order to deal with the state’s “cataclysmic fiscal crisis,” the Detroit Free Press reported.

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 06, 2011 (boomark / email).