Michigan

A trial court judge who was removed from office on July 31 for ethics violations was one of the top-two vote getters in the August 7 primary election for her seat and will advance to the general election. According to the supreme court, her removal extends only through the end of the year.

In Michigan, where three of the seven seats on the state supreme court are on the ballot in November, there is much attention focused on its Judicial Selection Task Force's recent recommendations. IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis and Chief Justice Ruth McGregor (Ret. – AZ), Chair of the O'Connor Advisory Committee to the Quality Judges Initiative, testified before this group and participated in a public forum last year.

Two recent opinion pieces in the New York Times discussed the reforms recommended by Michigan’s Judicial Selection Task Force, which included better disclosure requirements, open primaries, and campaign oversight committees. Three of the seven seats on the state supreme court are on the ballot this fall.

A New York Times commentary discussed the reforms recommended by the Michigan Judicial Selection Task Force, which included better disclosure requirements, open primaries, and campaign oversight committees. The piece closed by calling for replacing judicial elections with gubernatorial appointments based on merit and lamented that not all task force members supported such a reform.

A judicial selection task force made seven recommendations and offered draft legislation to improve the process for selecting supreme court justices. Recommendations including nominating candidates in open primaries rather than through party conventions, full disclosure of campaign spending, and the use of a vacancy nominating commission to fill judicial vacancies between elections.

Commentators speculated that this year’s judicial races could break past records for campaign spending. In 2010, with two seats on the ballot, $11 million was spent on TV ads alone, most of which were negative in tone and were funded by outside groups not required to file campaign finance reports.

At their state convention, Democrats endorsed three women for supreme court seats. One race is for an open seat, and Republican incumbents are standing for reelection in the other two. Party candidates will be officially nominated in September and run on nonpartisan ballots in November.

There are three supreme court seats up for election in November, one of which is an open seat. Though the parties do not officially nominate candidates until their conventions later this year, Democrats give non-binding nods to favorites at the spring convention.

The house of representatives approved a plan that will, over time, eliminate 36 judgeships and cut $5.7 million from the state’s annual budget. The chief justice characterized the plan as “unprecedented” and “the largest cut in judgeships ever accomplished in the United States.”

According to a new report, Michigan had the most expensive judicial races in 2009-10, accounting for one fourth of the $38.4 million spent nationwide. The state also saw the highest spending on TV advertisements and the most attack ads.