DETROIT – Not too long ago, the Michigan Supreme Court was an utter disgrace. Many rulings were embarrassingly partisan: When Republican-nominated justices had a majority, they thought nothing of overturning decisions made when Democrats were in charge.
Democrats were eager to do the same. The court took a further dive down when two justices – ironically, both Republicans – began fighting like two fourth-graders on the playground. Then-Chief Justice Clifford Taylor accused Justice Elizabeth Weaver of acting like “a child engaging in a tantrum,” made fun of her clothes, and actually wrote a draft opinion suggesting she go on a hunger strike.
In return, Weaver accused him of “bully tactics” and of abusing his power and grossly unprofessional conduct. In 2008, the University of Chicago Law School ranked Michigan Supreme Court the worst in the nation – and many lawyers in the state agreed.
What a difference a little more than a decade, and one key woman, have made: Today’s Michigan Supreme Court is a far more harmonious body. The justices get along, show respect for each other, and have taken a major role in not only making key decisions, many of which were bipartisan, but in supervising and improving the circuit, district and appellate courts under its jurisdiction.
Some of that is due to the departure of the bad actors. Taylor was turned out of office by the voters, and Weaver resigned and then died.
But most of the improvement is due to Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack, who may be the most respected public official in the state. Though she was nominated for the court by the Democratic Party in 2012, she was elected with bipartisan support, and soon thereafter began building friendships and working relationships with some of the Republicans on the court, notably the cantankerous Justice Robert Young.
When the position of chief justice became vacant in 2019, McCormack was elected, even though the court still had a GOP majority. She then made a decision that proved invaluable when the pandemic hit: She bought zoom licenses for every court in the state.
“No, of course I didn’t see Covid coming,” she laughed when I asked her about that two years ago. But though she was already in her 50s, she grasped the importance of technology in a way few others had. “Michigan is a big state, and I thought we ought to start doing things in a more convenient way for both lawyers and litigants.”
That paid off in a big way when the pandemic shut the courts down for well over a year. Though there is still a backlog of criminal trials, which have to take place in person, Michigan became “far and away the national leader” in handling other matters remotely.
That fall, McCormack was overwhelmingly reelected to another eight-year term, finishing more than a million votes ahead of her closest GOP challenger. Her popularity has done nothing but increase since then, and legally, she could have stayed on the court for two more terms after this one.
But earlier this month, she stunned the state with the announcement that she would resign before the year ended.
“I think there’s a little bit of an obligation for those of us who are in positions like this to step down and let younger people take the helm,” she said in an interview with the journalistic outlet MLive, adding that she wants to see a “younger and more diverse group of leaders get to the table,” including on the state’s highest court.
There is, indeed, something to be said for going out at the top of your game, and many would argue that 10 years in the same high-pressure job is long enough. But at a youthful 56, few would put her in the same demographic as Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi or President Biden, all of whom could easily be her parents.
Chief Justice McCormack is, however, a parent herself; she and her husband Steven Croley, an attorney who used to represent President Obama and then was chief counsel for the Department of Energy, have four children who are in college and graduate school.
That can get expensive. Michigan’s chief justice is paid $164,610 a year, less than she was making as a dean at the University of Michigan law school years ago. Now, she is going on to the top role at the American Arbitration Association’s International Center for Dispute Resolution, probably at a salary of a million dollars a year.
She will also be a key advisor to the University of Pennsylvania law school, but plans to keep living in Ann Arbor.
One of her fellow justices, Elizabeth Clement, a Republican appointee, said “Bridget sets the standard for what a chief justice should be: independent, positive, fair, clear-thinking, and engaging. In a world that has become increasingly partisan and angry, she is a voice of reason, compassion, and thoughtfulness.”
Odds are that Justice McCormack, who also took a leading role in founding a prison reform task force and an innocence clinic, will be missed more than most now realize.
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Who will replace McCormack on the court? Since she is leaving sometime between Nov. 22 and Dec. 31, that means Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will get to do so regardless of whether she is reelected or not; the governor is also believed to be committed to appointing the first female African-American justice.
As for who becomes Michigan’s next chief justice, that will be decided by the remaining members of the court, probably in January.
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(Editor’s Note: A version of this column also appeared in the Toledo Blade.)
