Weaver gives up on reform but helps break up the Gang of Four

Republican heads all over the state exploded yesterday with the news that Republican Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Weaver resigned and Gov. Jennifer Granholm appointed Michigan Appeals Judge Alton Davis from Grayling to the bench, giving Democrats a 4-3 majority on the court for the first time in nine years.

Weaver has been vilified by Republicans with names like evil, a traitor and names I can’t repeat, and even the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus joined in the chorus with a misguided editorial called “Weaver gamed a system that begs for reform.” Reform the system is what Weaver has been pushing for years. She has been a Justice for two terns serving for 16 years and nominated by the Michigan Republican Party for her two terms.

The party indicated that they were not going to nominate the incumbent Justice at their convention Saturday. And exactly what was Weaver’s crime that she was not going to be nominated for a third term? On occasion she exercised some actual independence and did not always vote with the former Republican “Gang of Four.”

The Gang of Four once consisted of the activist judges Cliff Taylor, Robert Young, Stephen Markman and Maura Corrigan. “Sleepy Cliff Taylor” was unseated by Justice Diane Marie Hathaway in 2008, becoming the first incumbent Justice to lose in 24 years.

During that dark time the Gang of Four held sway, no insurance company lost a case, it expanded government immunity so much that government can only be sued if a pot hole is so large you have to climb out of it and destroyed product liability in the state.

The paper calls Weaver a “Maverick,” and claims that Weaver engaged “after years of squabbling that belie the high-court's image of decorum.” I guess if a maverick is someone who doesn’t march in lock-step with the four Republicans then she is a maverick. I don’t know why the squabbling is only Weaver’s fault and not of the Gang of Four (3).

Bur Weaver does agree with the Republican editorial board that the court needs to be reformed, and in fact, she has pushed for a less partisan way to choose Justices for years, including such things as term limits and other reforms. But to say she “gamed the system” is ridiculous, and smacks of sour grapes.

For on example of her attempt at reform, last October Weaver testified in front of the Senate Campaign and Election Oversight Committee in favor of Senate Bill 745 that would elect the state's seven Supreme Court justices from districts instead of on a statewide basis. Currently, most of the Justices are from southeast Michigan, and only Davis from the UP is an exception.

To show you how difficult it is to reform the court, the bill was introduced by a Republican candidate for Secretary of State, Sen. Michele McManus, R-Lake Leelanau, and supported by GOP boosters the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, but it still did not get more than a hearing in committee controlled by Republicans and remains there.

Elizabeth Weaver is my new hero.

Insurance companies keep their undefeated streak alive in MI Supreme Court

The rightwing Michigan Supreme Court struck a blow for justice for the downtrodden insurance companies and their record profits against the powerful poor and middle class consumers on Thursday when it ruled on a split 4-3 vote that insurers can continue to consider customers' credit scores when setting rates for auto and homeowners insurance.

In Insurance Institute of Michigan vs. Insurance Commissioner, the Republican majority on the court held that then-Office of Financial and Insurance Services Commissioner Linda Watters exceeded her authority under the insurance code to ban credit scoring through rules she issued in 2004. The “Gang of Four” helped insurance companies keep their undefeated streak alive, and insurance companies have not lost a case in the Michigan Supreme Court in 12 years.

There is no better reason to unseat Justice “Sleepy” Bob Young this November so people can get justice. It’s amazing that Young didn’t recluse himself from the case. He was the head attorney for AAA insurance for many years.

“This is a discriminatory decision by Bob Young and his Republican cronies on the Michigan Supreme Court,” said Mark Brewer, Chair of the Michigan Democratic Party. “This decision will increase premiums for drivers and drive up the cost of auto insurance coverage. Once again, Young and Republicans on the Court side with their campaign donors - the insurance companies - over Michigan consumers.”

I have no idea how your credit score, as well as your education level, zip code and even job title, determines what kind of driver you will be. Your rate should be based on your driving record and the value of your car.

The Republican’s had to twist themselves into a pretzel to please their moneyed donors to justify this discriminatory decision.

According to subscription only Gogwer, Justice Maura Corrigan, writing for the majority that included Stephen Markman, Elizabeth Weaver and Young, said “offering a discount for a good credit score is no different than one for safety devices in a vehicle.”

"Discounts for anti-lock brakes are offered because they reduce the risk of loss, and discounts for high insurance scores are offered because they reduce the risk of loss," she wrote. "The more insureds there are with anti-lock brakes, the lower the risk of overall loss. Likewise, the more insureds there are with high insurance scores, the lower the risk of overall loss."

Say what? A high credit score is the same as anti-lock breaks? That will be good to know when someone with a high credit score is speeding through a residential area and slams on the breaks to avoid hitting a kid who ran into the street.

Once again, the Republican majority on the court stiffed the consumers in favor of their insurance company masters.

Fieger Time fires up the troops at MDP convention

DETROIT -- One important function of any political convention is to energize and fire up the troops, and super attorney Geoffrey Fieger did just that on Saturday at the first ever Michigan Democratic Party Endorsement Convention in Cobo Hall.

The 1998 Democratic Michigan Gubernatorial candidate spoke to a standing room only crowd at the Justice Caucus, and he hit on everything from the current budget situation to the Republican majority on the Michigan Supreme Court once known as the “Gang of Four.”

Fieger lost to former Governor John Engler in 1998, and the only candidate who won on the Democratic slate was current Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who won as Michigan Attorney General. Fieger said he was proud to have had a hand in selecting her as the AG candidate.

He pointed out Republicans have blamed her for all of the state’s economic troubles, despite it was the Bush Administration that ran the country into the worst recession since the Great Depression. Because Michigan has so many manufacturing jobs, Michigan feels any economic downturn, first hurts the worst and is the last state to come out of it. He asked how Granholm can be blamed for General Motors and Chrysler declaring bankruptcy.

“As you know, she walked into a deficit of $500 million that was left to her by Mr. Engler intentionally, intentionally,” he said. “She has never been able to get out from under that.”

Fieger said when the voters know the facts they will never vote for a Republican,and it’s up to the Democrats to get the facts out.

“Why anyone would vote for a Republican in this election cycle is beyond me,” he said. “It’s only possible by the complacency of the Democrats, and it’s only by the Democrats sitting on their keisters.”

He said he was amazed by the Republican gubernatorial field. He said “Twitter” Pete Hoekstra thinks the biggest issue facing Michigan is terrorism. He said Republicans always have to have a boogyman. The current one is terrorists, yet the country was not shut down and freedoms were not taken away after the Oklahoma City bombing, which occurred 15 years ago today.

“When I was a kid it was the communists; like the communists were going to invade Iowa or Montana, but the communists in China are OK,” Fieger said. “They will still take you into a stadium and shoot you in the back of the head in front of 10,000 people, but that’s OK.

“The communists in Cuba are evil, but they can’t hurt a fly, and they don’t have a nuclear weapon,” he said.

He took on the Michigan Supreme Court and especially Justice Bob “Sleepy” Young, who is up for reelection in November. He said Young was the former general counsel for AAA Insurance Co. and a friend of the Michigan chamber, and that’s why he rules for insurance companies more than 80 percent of the time.

“I, and other trial lawyers, represent the victims,” Fieger said. “We are the people’s warriors. Being a trial lawyer is more than my profession to me, I care about my clients.”

Fieger’s distaste for the Supreme Court is personal. On a radio appearance a few years ago he referred to the Michigan appellate judges as "jackasses" for overturning a $15 million medical malpractice judgment he had won. A lower court reprimand based on these comments was eventually upheld by the Michigan Supreme Court.

He also talked about his selective prosecution on campaign finance charges. In 2007, Fieger was indicted on federal charges of funneling illegal contributions to the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, and he was acquitted of all charges on June 2, 2008. He said Goldman Sachs employees were awarded for doing the same thing he was charged for, yet the Bush Administration went after him alone.

“All it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing,” he said.

Michigan can’t afford eight more years of the same old sleepy judge. Young was voted the worst justice on the Supreme Court by the magazine Michigan Lawyers Weekly, he supported drug company immunity when their drugs harm or kill and his decisions have protected polluters who despoil our waters.

“Those four justices never overturned a verdict in favor of an insurance company, and they never overturned a verdict against a criminal defendant,” Fieger said.

Michigan Republican Party now paying for false Willie Horton-like attack ad against Judge Hathaway

The right is emptying the sewers in attacking Judge Diane Marie Hathaway, but the good news is that it means she has a good chance of winning the seat over an incumbent on the Michigan Supreme Court.

The Michigan Chamber of Commerce took a shot at Hathaway with a vile ad of their own in order to prop up their stooge on the court, Cliff Taylor, the leader of the three other extreme rightwing activist judges known as the "Gang of Four." The ads are false, attacking her sentencing record as a Wayne County Circuit Court Judge.

The latest pair of false attack ads are being paid for by the Michigan Republican Party. I'm happy to see they are spending money on this trash they didn't expect they would have to spend and will not be able to spend elsewhere. We can only hope voters are smarter than the GOP give them credit for, and they will see through the lies. I think they are or the race would not be this close.

The vilest ad features a sinister mug shot of Dearborn resident Hussein Ali Zorkot in a Willie Horton-like ad. The third-year Wayne State University medical student was arrested on Sept. 8, 2007 in Dearborn's Hemlock Park with a loaded AK-47. He was sentenced in a plea deal on July 29 to two year's probation.

The Republicans are, of course, using their tried and true tactics of fear and racism, and trying to label him as a terrorist. He has not been identified as a terrorist or linked to any terrorist group, according to law enforcement officials. It was a plea deal, and if Hathaway went against the deal the prosecutor made there would be a trial.

The next ad is built around one single quote that appears to be taken out of context. This is the quote: "most of the Winter on the Sunny Beaches of Florida." That's it. It has to be taken out of context because it's not a complete sentence. It references the Oct. 25, 2006 issue of the Michigan Chronicle. The ad features beach scenes, and uses the incomplete quote as the reason Hathaway ran for Michigan Appeals Court Judge in 2006.

Sleepy Taylor one man show gets rave reviews

For a great piece of performance art that reflects real life, check out the touring show sponsored by Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer with a staff member portraying Sleeping Judge Cliff Taylor when he fell asleep during a Michigan Supreme Court hearing for the case of two mothers who lost six children in an apartment fire owned by the Detroit Housing Commission.

In a press release, Brewer said Taylor, who leads the conservative majority of activist judges known as the "Gang of Four," has been snoozing while Michigan families have been devastated by rulings that changed Michigan law and unfairly protected special interests, corporate polluters and drug companies.

"Just like you wouldn’t want a driver asleep at the wheel, you wouldn’t want a judge asleep on the bench,” Brewer said. “Cliff Taylor has repeatedly turned his back on Michigan families and changed Michigan law to protect special interests and corporate polluters. Michigan families need Supreme Court justices that will put our families first, not their excessive pay and perks.”

Brewer unveiled the show yesterday on the steps of the Michigan Hall of Justice in Lansing. Brewer outlined some of the most egregious Taylor rulings that unfairly protected corporations and polluters, at great expense to Michigan citizens and families. During the press conference, the young thespian playing Sleepy Cliff jerked awake when Brewer mentioned his perks, his salary and how he has protected the status quo.

Among the more horrendous cases, Taylor refused to hold a landlord liable for faulty wiring that sparked a fire in which six children were killed. During arguments in that case, eyewitnesses said Taylor fell asleep. He wrote the opinion upholding Michigan's unique drug immunity law, which allows drug companies to avoid responsibility when their products hurt or kill someone. Taylor also changed Michigan’s Environmental Protection Act in the Nestle case, making it harder for citizens to protect the environment. The state House Judiciary Committee is investigating Taylor for abuse of power and misconduct.

The one man show is currently touring the state. Be sure to vote for Judge Diane Marie Hathaway for Michigan Supreme Court in the nonpartisan part of the ballot.

Laughable chamber attack ad against Hathaway reads like a bad parody

Here’s a surprise. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce is endorsing extremist rightwing activist judge Cliff Taylor over Judge Diane Marie Hathaway in the race for Michigan Supreme Court.

Not only that, they are running commercials statewide for Taylor to the tune of $2.5 million. The chamber endorsement is not surprising when you consider no individual has won a case against an insurance company or corporation in a decade in the court ran by the “Gang of Four.”

These ads are such a cliché they seem like almost an SNL parody, right down to the voice at the end that tells you to call the candidate and tell them to stop abusing puppies, stop pulling tags off of mattresses, stop stealing candy from babies or fill in the blank. The only difference in this ad is it has a woman narrating instead of a deep-voiced man trying to scare you.

The gist of the ad is Hathaway allegedly gave a sexual predator a light sentence. The last line is hilarious:
“Tell Diane Hathaway don’t give sexual predators light sentences.”
Brilliant.

Apparently, the chamber missed the endorsement of the Michigan Association of Police Organizations who did so because of Hathaway's record on drug and sex crimes. She also has the endorsement of the Detroit Police Officers Association, Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans, Wayne County Prosecutor, Kym Worthy, Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith, Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel and Marquette County Prosecutor Gary Walk.

TV station bows to political pressure and censors political ad in Supreme Court race

CBS affiliate WWMT-TV in Kalamazoo censored political speech Thursday when it pulled the ad pointing out rightwing activist judge Cliff Taylor fell asleep when hearing the case of two mothers who lost six children in an apartment fire owned by the Detroit Housing Commission.

The add, called "The Fairly Tale of the Sleeping Judge," features the two mother's saying Taylor fell asleep during their case. They also filed an affidavit stating what they saw. But the attorney representing the Detroit Housing Commission also filed an affidavit saying he did not see Taylor nod off. The Housing commission, of coursed, won the case; no individual has won a case against an insurance company, municipality or corporation heard by the four activist judges known as the "Gang of Four" led by Taylor in a decade.

According to subscription only Gongwer, the decision to pull the ad came after station discussions with Alan Wilk, counsel for the Taylor campaign, and the Michigan Democratic Party. The campaign had asked all stations in the state to pull the ad, but only WWMT in predominantly Republican West Michigan bowed to political pressure and censored the ad.

I have already sent an email protesting the station's decision to censor political speech and knuckle to political pressure, and I urge you do the same. General Sales Manager James Wagner can be emailed at wagner@wwmt.com. To phone the station call (269) 388-3333 or toll free at (800) 875-3333.

Taylor's opponent, Judge Diane Marie Hathaway, continues to rack up endorsements, and yesterday she received several endorsements from local law enforcement leaders, each citing Hathaway's record on drug and sex crimes. Those endorsements include Detroit Prosecutor Kym Worthy and the Michigan Association of Police Organizations.

LSJ Journal urges readers to oust Taylor from broken Michigan Supreme Court

The Lansing State Journal is the latest newspaper to endorse Judge Diane Marie Hathaway to help fix the broken and politicized Michigan Supreme Court.

Hathaway is squaring off against rightwing Republican Cliff Taylor, and he leads the partisan majority of activist judges known unaffectingly as the "Gang of Four" that have slammed the door to the courts shut to all but insurance companies and the richest corporations. If fact, the LSJ endorsed Hathaway's candidacy "as a way to protect the rights of Michigan residents against the assaults of the Taylor-led court."

The newspaper also said "The most important vote a Michigan resident can cast this fall is to oust Chief Justice Clifford Taylor from the Michigan Supreme Court." That would be a blow for justice, so be sure to flip your ballot over and vote in the nonpartisan section for Judge Hathaway.

Michigan Republican Chair Saul Anuzis is doing more than spinning over a TV ad that accused Taylor of sleeping during oral arguments on the bench in a case where six children died in a house fire. In the case, McDowell vs. City of Detroit, the two mothers of the dead children said that Taylor fell asleep during their case. What's Anuzis's answer? The mother's are lying.

He's all class.

Free Press columnist documents more harm the Gang of Four has brought

Detroit Free Press Brian Dickerson provides one more case study on why the Republican majority of activist judges on the Michigan Supreme Court known as the “Gang of Four" needs to go.

Dickerson's Sunday column outlines the case of West Bloomfield resident Julian Wendrow who was unlawfully jailed for the alleged molestation of his teen autistic daughter. Only after the investigative work of a pair of Free Press reporters did the case get dropped and he was freed. It was nice to see the corporate media do what it was intended to do and why I became a reporter to begin with.

The Free Press published videotaped excerpts of an abusive, two-hour police interrogation of Wendrow's 13-year-old son, who has a form of autism known as Asperger's Syndrome, where he was badgered to implicate his father.

Last week, Wendrow sought justice thorough the courts where justice is supposed to be blind, and he sued a long list of officials, including Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca, Sheriff Mike Bouchard and West Bloomfield Police Chief Ronald Cronin.

To do so, Wendrow has to prove that those officials acted with reckless disregard for the plaintiff's welfare or constitutional rights because government employees are protected against lawsuits for doing their job unless they acted with reckless disregard; which evidence indicates they did in this case.

The problem is that the Gang of Four has expanded government immunity so much that government cannot be sued.

Cliff Taylor is the leader of the Gang of Four, and Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Diane Marie Hathaway is running to unseat him and restore balance to the court.

Hathaway set to unseat the leader of the Republican majority of activist judges known as the ‘Gang of Four’

LANSING -- Democrats at the Michigan Democratic State Convention Saturday demonstrated democracy in action when they chose Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Diane Marie Hathaway as their Supreme Court nominee in a close floor vote.

Hathaway just edged out fellow Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Debra Thomas by some 200 votes, and she earned the right to run against incumbent Cliff Taylor. He leads the Republican majority of activist judges known as the “Gang of Four.” Groups like the Michigan Justice Caucus have made it a major goal to unseat Taylor

“It’s time to make a change on the Supreme Court,” said Sen. Buzz Thomas, the co-chair of the convention. “The future of our children and a free society depends on it.”

Despite the close defeat and the effort Thomas put into the race already, she was quick to endorse Hathaway.

“We both believe in fairness and justice,” she told the convention delegates. “Cliff Taylor has to go.”

Under Taylor’s leadership, the court has gutted consumer protection laws, watered down environmental protection laws and weakened individual rights. The doors of justice have been slammed shut in the face of ordinary citizens and swung wide open for insurance companies and corporations. No individual has won a case against an insurance company in more than a decade.

In May the University of Chicago Law School released a study that rated the Michigan Supreme Court dead last in effectiveness under Taylor’s leadership. The study cited a lack of judicial independence as the report’s most glaring finding, and it said the Court seems to be especially supportive of businesses.

Michigan Lawyers Weekly began an online poll shortly after Hathaway announced her intention to run, and lawyers of all stripes chose Hathaway overwhelmingly 91 to 9 percent.

“He is against everything Michigan stands for, except insurance companies,” Hathaway said. “If you see justice in the name, he really belongs in the hall of shame.”

It’s difficult to unseat an incumbent justice, and it has been estimated the Justice title can be worth up to a 30 percent edge in the vote. Taylor has been on the state Supreme Court since 1997, but he was appointed by Gov. John Engler to fill a vacant seat. He used that title to be elected in 1998.

Hathaway pointed out one of Taylor’s many conflicts of interest. His wife, Lucille Taylor, was Engler's legal counsel. She still does work for Republican Attorney General Mike Cox.

“Cliff Taylor is a walking conflict of interest, and he has got to go,” Hathaway said.

Hathaway grew up in Detroit as the daughter of a 30-year Detroit police officer. She was a Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor for six years, and she has been a circuit court judge since 1993.

Supreme Court races are on the nonpartisan part of the ballot, and many people do not continue on to that part of the ballot., In fact, it’s estimated there is a 37 percent drop off on that part of the ballot.

“You have not voted all the way, until you have voted Hathaway,” she said.

Just say no to complex ballot issue

Reform Michigan Government Now turned in almost 500,000 signatures to the Secretary of State on Monday to place the ballot proposal on the November ballot that will make a number of changes to the structure of state government.

Right-wingers have come out against this petition drive, and even though some of their reasons for opposing it borders on the hysterical and ridiculous, I agree with some of the reasons for opposition, and if it makes it on the ballot I will vote against it. According to the group's new web site, the proposal will “Reduce the salaries of executive branch, end free lifetime health care for lawmakers and bring their retirement benefits in line with other state workers and increase transparency by requiring elected officials to disclose their income and assets every year. I agree that those things need to be looked at, but it does much, much more than that.

It would also cut the Supreme Court Justices to five members, from seven, reduces the Court of Appeals by seven members and adds 10 circuit court judges. There is no doubt the Supreme Court is firmly in the pocket of insurance companies and big corporations, but what needs to change is how Justices are selected.

The House would be cut to 82 members from the current 110 and the Senate to 28 from 38 and half of the Senate seats would be decided at each election.

New reapportionment requirements would be established, including the creation of at least four Senate and nine House swing districts in an attempt to produce more competitive elections; districts would be drawn by a nine-member commission, with six votes required to approve any plan; it would not be subject to change or repeal by voters, the legislative or executive branches and judicial review would be limited.

Elections would be overseen by an autonomous nonpartisan agency.

The number of allowed departments would be cut to 18, from 20, and no more than 200 boards and commissions would be permitted.

Many of these proposals I agree with, some I don’t and some I simply do not have enough information on to make a decision. Neither will voters. These complex proposals, at the least, should be taken one at a time. Frankly, I am not a fan of legislating by petition. We elect people to represent us in our representative democracy, and they make laws after plenty of debate, analysis by nonpartisan agencies, committee hearings and debate on the respective House or Senate floors. To me, that’s the best way to make laws and policy.

I’m also not crazy about the petition drive itself. I do not believe the baseless charges of fraud make by the Republicans, but the fact is there was not a lot of publicity, openness and visibility of the drive. I’m pretty politically active, and I never saw a petition.

I urge people to vote no if this makes it on the ballot, and instead to call for a state Constitutional Convention to address some of the important issues brought out in the petition.

Gang of Four slams the door of justice in the face of citizens

BRIGHTON – If you’re an individual suing an insurance company or a corporation in Michigan you will lose. It’s as simple as that.

Since the Republican majority, known as the “Gang of Four,” took over the majority of the Michigan Supreme Court, an insurance company has not lost a case in a decade. The four activist judges – Cliff Taylor, Robert Young, Stephen Markman and Maura Corrigan - have gutted consumer protection laws, watered down environmental protection laws and weakened individual rights. The doors of justice have been slammed shut in the face of ordinary citizens and swung wide open for insurance companies and corporations.

“They have radically changed Michigan law,” said Ypsilanti attorney Doug Shapiro, at a recent forum on the Supreme Court sponsored by the Livingston County Democratic Party. “In 10 years, no one has won a case against an insurance company; if you are the plaintiff, you lose.”

The court’s decision has empowered insurance companies and made them less responsive to consumers.

“Insurance companies once had to act in the best fiduciary duty to the insurance, not just make money,” Shapiro said. “Not any more.”

As for a perfect example of that, Shapiro said in the past, people had a year to sue their insurance company after a claim was denied; ironically, to keep litigation down. Now, the clock starts ticking as soon as the incident occurs. The insurance company can put off the insured for a year, lose paperwork and simply delay a decision until the clock runs out. It also applies to someone who is mentally incapacitated because of the incident, overturning a 50 year precedent.

The gang of four has also expanded government immunity so much that government can only be sued if a pot hole is so large you have to climb out of it. Governments do not have to plow snow, maintain proper lighting and other basic safety issues. For example, the gang of four recently ruled the City of Lansing cannot be held liable in the 2005 death of 7-year-old Chantell Buckner, who was struck and killed by a drunk driver while walking along a curb because a city plow had covered the sidewalk with snow.

“There is no incentive for the government to address those safety things,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro also said the gang of four’s arrogant actions have destroyed product liability in the state.

“If you read the opinions, they mock the sense of justice,” Shapiro said. “Like the Bush Administration, justice is like the Geneva Convention, quaint.
“They have said it’s not the court’s duty to provide justice,” he said.

The gang of four were never elected, and were initially appointed. But, they are acting as a partisan, unelected four person legislature. Only Taylor is up for election, and there is a grassroots effort to defeat him and bring some fairness back to the court.

They know they have an uphill battle because incumbency for the Supreme Court is worth up to 30 percent of the vote. Plus, there is considerable ballot drop off, and most people don’t get that far down on the ballot.

The Justice Caucus has formed the “Supreme Challenge” to target Taylor. The Michigan Democratic Party has not named a nominee, but Orion attorney Marietta S. Robinson and 3rd Circuit Court Judge Deborah A. Thomas have been mentioned as candidates. Michigan Lawyers Weekly conducted an online poll, and both Robinson and Thomas trounced Taylor with more than 75 percent of the vote.

Ward and the Republicans plot to disenfranchise voters and suppress voter turnout

Here’s a pretty simple question for Rep. Chris Ward, R-Brighton, and his supporters: With no voter fraud in Michigan to speak of and an anemic voter turnout of less than 30 percent for most elections, why do we want to throw up another barrier to get people out to the polls to exercise their most basic and honored right as a citizen?

On Wednesday, the Michigan Supreme Court voted 5-2 to disenfranchise a large number of voters when it upheld a 1996 law passed by Republicans that requires voters to show photo identification before casting their ballots. The Supreme Court was acting on House Resolution 199 that was sponsored by Ward in February of 2006 and co-sponsored by just about every Republican in the House that asked the “Michigan Supreme Court to issue an opinion on the constitutionality of the provisions of 2005 PA 71 that require voters to provide photo identification in order to obtain a ballot.”

Like everything else Ward, a former township clerk, touches you can bet it is solely intended to benefit the GOP and keep him and his cronies in power, and this ridiculous move does just that. Three Michigan Attorney Generals – two Democrats and one Republican – have held that this violated the Constitution. The law was struck down shortly after it was signed into law in 1995 by an opinion by former Michigan Attorney General and Eternal General Frank Kelley. Current AG Mike Cox, A Republican, held the same opinion, and Ward and then Speaker Craig DeRoche went to work to disenfranchise voters.

Generally, legislation is introduced to correct a problem, but what problems are Ward and the Republicans trying to correct? What voter fraud are they trying to correct? When was the last time you heard of voter fraud in Michigan? The answer to all of those questions is there is no problem with voter fraud in Michigan. Of course, what we do have are voter turnouts of less than 30 percent in most areas, and that’s a problem we as citizens should be addressing. This aggravates that problem, but that’s what Ward intended. Plus, that’s 30 percent of the people who actually registered to vote, not 30 percent of the population of voting age. Why are we so willing to give up the most cherished right that thousands of soldiers, Marines, sailors and airman have died to preserve. Instead, the GOP wants to depress voter turnout even more by throwing up a roadblock to voters. Not coincidentally, it’s minority and the poor who tend to vote Democratic that will be disenfranchised.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer had it right when he said in a written statement, “These photo identification laws are nothing more than a poll tax and are part of an ongoing strategy by Michigan Republicans to disenfranchise minority and older voters. There is no problem with voter fraud or voter misrepresentation in Michigan which could justify this disenfranchisement of voters.”

We can expect to see even more voter intimidation by Republicans at the polls in urban areas and polling places with predominately minority population when and if this is implemented.

I’m no attorney, but this looks like a clear violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that was adopted in 1868 to protect the rights of freed slaves in the south that says, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.”

This also raises the question that was brought out in an Aug. 2, 2006 editorial in the Detroit Free Press that asked what this does to the power of the AG’s office. Some eight years ago, “Republicans in the Legislature tried to enact a law erasing much of the authority of the state attorney general, at the time a Democrat named Jennifer Granholm. The effort died, and deservedly so, amid a political mini-tempest over taking power away from the elected lawyer of the people.”
Does this decision throw out the long-held legal principle that an attorney general's opinion has the effect of law unless challenged and overturned in court?

“Such is the fate, evidently, of attorneys general who dare to issue opinions that certain legislators don't like. Power plays such as this actually underscore the need to retain the Attorney General's Office as an independent arbiter for state and local governments. Actually, attorney general's opinions often issued on an advisory basis and sometimes suggesting a legal course to follow, keep a lot of things from becoming costly legal battles for the state or the many local governments that make inquiries. And when the opinions have been challenged in court, they have been upheld more than 90 percent of the time, which underscores the way the office, at least on opinions, hews to the law rather than to politics.
The people of Michigan elect an attorney general statewide to serve as their chief law enforcement officer, not as a lackey to the Legislature. The framers of the current state Constitution, which was enacted in 1963, even referred to the attorney general as the "watchdog" of state government, on behalf of taxpayers, consumers and public officials. “

Markman, Taylor and Young, Oh my

If we needed another example of the Republicans drive to conduct the people’s business in secret behind closed, locked doors we have this example from Free Press Columnist Brian Dickerson. This time it’s the dignified and stogy Michigan Supreme Court. It proves politics is politics even if you wear a black robe. No wonder we were all scared in 2000 with the refrain “Markman, Taylor and Young, Oh my.”

Now a Republican justice's threat to disclose embarrassing internal discussions and correspondence has sparked a crisis, with the other GOP justices threatening disciplinary action if the court's tradition of deliberative confidentiality is violated.
Justice Elizabeth Weaver has been the state Supreme Court's odd woman out since 2001, when all six of her colleagues voted to depose her as chief justice.
Relations between Weaver and the other GOP justices seemed to reach a nadir in August, when Weaver opined that fellow Republicans Clifford Taylor, Maura Corrigan, Robert Young Jr. and Stephen Markman should be disqualified from hearing a disciplinary complaint against Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger.
In a scathingly sarcastic response, Taylor defended the majority's impartiality and suggested that Weaver was simply venting "personal resentment" over her 5-year-old ouster.
But an emergency administrative order issued last week suggests that resentment on both sides is still smoldering.
The order decrees that "effective immediately," all "correspondence, memoranda and discussions regarding cases or controversies" before the court "are confidential," and that "this obligation to honor confidentiality does not expire when a case is decided."