Get To Know Your Michigan Supreme Court Candidates

At MLive, Tim Skubick is offering a gold star if you can name the 6 Michigan Supreme Court candidates.

As Tim sees it, Supreme Court justices should be appointed, not elected. Sadly, I have to agree.

Ideally, an educated judiciary making making an informed choice would be the best choice. But judicial appointments of candidates selected first by a blue-ribbon committee made up of respected lawyers and judges of the most qualified judicial candidates certainly beats out our current method of picking judges for the Michigan Supreme Court: female gender, Irish surname, and allegiance to a political litmus test that both parties use.

Sill, the current problem is not being addressed – and that is the problem of Michigan voters being hood-winked by a very activist, pro-insurance industry Court.

If Tim is right that Michigan voters know little if anything about the six candidates, then please allow me to humbly offer some assistance:

• Michigan Supreme Court has had a biased record of favoring insurance companies. – The Republican majority of our Michigan Supreme Court has sided with insurance companies — and against consumers, including seriously injured auto accident victims — 100% of the time.
• The Michigan Supreme Court is assassinating justice. – The four Republican justices on the Michigan Supreme Court have released a series of landmark decisions that will have devastating results on thousands of Michigan citizens injured in car accidents and slip and fall cases.
• Activist Republican Court denied accident victims their day in court. – Form over substance. Technicalities over justice. Politics over precedent. Insurance company or corporation over an individual citizen.
• Michigan Supreme Court has been running over the rights of children. – In an opinion dominated by the court’s conservative Republican wing, the court’s right-leaning justices ruled that even though child accident victims have until they are 19 to sue for overdue No-Fault benefits, they can only recover for one year’s worth of these overdue No-Fault PIP benefits.

So, unless you’re an insurance company, our Court has been systematically eroding justice in our state for years.

So what can be done? You guessed it, place your vote on Nov. 6.

The Candidates

The Detroit Free Press provides a complete list of the candidates here.

However, if you want to know which candidates I recommend, these are the candidates I believe will be a better choice for Michigan:

Judge Connie Marie Kelley (www.conniekelleyforjustice.com)

Who she is: Family law judge for Wayne County Circuit Court; created a youth mentoring program for at-risk girls.

Her priorities: Fighting for the rights of everyday people and families.

Judge Shelia Johnson (www.judgesheliajohnson.com)

Who she is: Judge 46th District Court; first African American to serve as judge in the Southfield court; has a record of deterring crime by imposing tough sentences and creating a community program for teens.

Her priorities: Protecting auto accident victims, sexual abuse survivors, injury victims and those who have been taken advantage of by large corporations.

Bridget Mary McCormack (www.mccormackforjustice.com)

Who she is: Law professor and Dean for Clinical Affairs at the University of Michigan Law School; founded The Pediatric Health Advocacy Clinic, which helps domestic violence survivors and children needing medical care.

Her priorities: Protecting your children, families and communities; not caving to special interest pressure.