Michigan Supreme Court

Michigan Supreme Court
Established	1837
Jurisdiction	Michigan  United States
Location	Lansing
Composition method	Non-partisan election
Authorized by	Michigan Constitution
Decisions are appealed to	Supreme Court of the United States
Judge term length	8 years
Number of positions	7 (including chief justice)
Website	http://courts.michigan.gov/supremecourt/
Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court
Currently	Robert P. Young, Jr.
Since	2011
Lead position ends	2013
Jurist term ends	January 1, 2019

The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is known as Michigan's "court of last resort" and consists of seven justices who are elected to eight-year terms. Candidates are nominated by political parties and are elected on a nonpartisan ballot. Supreme Court candidates must be qualified electors, licensed to practice law in Michigan for at least five years, and under 70 years of age at the time of election. Vacancies are filled by appointment of the Governor until the next general election. Every two years, the justices elect a member of the Court to serve as Chief Justice.

Each year, the Court receives over 2,000 new case filings. In most cases, the litigants seek review of Michigan Court of Appeals decisions, but the Supreme Court also hears cases of attorney and judicial misconduct, as well as a small number of matters over which the Court has original jurisdiction. The Court issues a decision by order or opinion in all cases filed with it. Opinions and orders of the Court are reported in an official publication, Michigan Reports, as well as in Thomson West's privately-published North Western Reporter.

The Court's other duties include overseeing the operations of all state trial courts. It is assisted in this endeavour by the State Court Administrative Office,^[1] one of its agencies. The Court's responsibilities also include a public comment process for changes to court rules, rules of evidence and other administrative matters. The court has broad superintending control power over all the state courts in Michigan.

Article 6, Section 30 of the Michigan Constitution creates the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission. This is an agency within the judiciary, having jurisdiction over allegations of judicial misconduct, misbehavior, and infirmity. The Supreme Court is given original, superintending control power, and appellate jurisdiction over the issue of penalty (up to and including removal of judges from office).^[2]

The Court is located in the Michigan Hall of Justice at 925 Ottawa Street in Lansing, the state capital.

History

The Michigan Supreme Court can be dated back to the Supreme Court of Michigan Territory, established in 1805 with three justices. These justices served for indefinite terms. In 1823, the terms of justices were limited to four-years.

The Michigan Supreme Court was the only court created by the first Michigan constitution in 1837. It had three members and each also oversaw one of the three judicial circuits, located in Detroit, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo. The court needed a quorum of two to operate and members were appointed to seven-year terms by the governor with the consent of the senate. In 1838, Justice William A. Fletcher proposed a new plan for the court that the legislature approved. This increased the number of circuits to four and thus expanded the bench to four justices, but left the quorum at two.

In 1848, the court was expanded to five justices and the 1850 Michigan constitution provided that they be elected for six-year terms. In 1858, the Circuit Courts were split from the Supreme Court, so justices now only served on the Michigan Supreme Court and reduced its size to only four justices, one of whom was the Chief Justice.

In 1887, the court was expanded to five justices each serving for ten years. The court was again expanded in 1903 to eight justices serving terms of eight-years. In 1964, the new state constitution set the number of justices on the court at seven.

Historically, the Michigan Supreme Court has held to a conservative judicial philosophy and is known as one of the more conservative state courts in the nation. Since the 1980s the court has applied a strict originalist approach to solving constitutional issues and in its rulings on interpreting state laws and statutes. As of the 2010 midterm election, the court currently is headed by a 4-3 conservative majority and Robert P. Young, Jr. is, as of January 5, 2011, the Chief Justice.

Justices

Frontal view of the Michigan Hall of Justice.

Main article: List of Justices of the Michigan Supreme Court

The current Justices of the Michigan Supreme Court are:

Name	Elected/Appointed	Term expires	Appointing Governor	Party Affiliation	Law School Attended
Chief Justice Robert P. Young, Jr.	1999	January 1, 2019	John Engler / Elected	Republican	Harvard University Law School
Michael Cavanagh	1982	January 1, 2015	Elected	Democrat	University of Detroit Mercy School of Law
Marilyn Kelly	1996	January 1, 2013	Elected	Democrat	Wayne State University Law School
Stephen Markman	1999	January 1, 2013	John Engler / Elected	Republican	University of Cincinnati College of Law
Diane Hathaway	2008	January 1, 2017	Elected	Democrat	Michigan State University College of Law
Mary Beth Kelly	2010	January 1, 2019	Elected	Republican	University of Notre Dame Law School
Brian K. Zahra	2011	January 1, 2013	Rick Snyder	Republican	University of Detroit Mercy School of Law

See also

The Michigan Hall of Justice houses the Michigan Supreme Court.

• List of Justices of the Michigan Supreme Court

References

1. ^ State Court Administrative service website
2. ^ See, Matter of Del Rio, 400 Mich. 665.

Further reading

• Noto, Scott A. A Brief History of the Michigan Supreme Court. (Lansing: Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society, 2001).

External links

• Michigan Supreme Court
• Michigan Supreme Court Commentary
• Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society

Coordinates: 42°44′01″N 84°33′56″W / 42.733664°N 84.565431°W / 42.733664; -84.565431