Former state Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Weaver, of Glen Arbor, has never been one to sugar-coat her opinions or back off her commitment to justice for the people of Michigan.
In her 16 years on the high court, particularly in the last 10 years or so, Weaver often found herself at odds with the Republican majority's continuing trend to narrow access to the courts and challenge long-standing precedent over who had "standing" to bring issues to the courts.
On Thursday, Weaver resigned her seat after eliciting a promise from Gov. Jennifer Granholm that Granholm would name an independent northern Michigan jurist to replace her. An hour after Weaver announced her resignation, Granholm named Appeals Court Judge Alton Davis — a Democrat — to the top court. The move gives Democrats a 4-3 majority, at least until the November 2011 elections.
Weaver said she is ready — and now able — to "work and speak freely" toward her self-professed goal of "helping further the critically needed reforms of the judicial system."
In particular, Weaver has long been critical of Michigan's system of political party nomination of Supreme Court candidates who then run in what are ostensibly non-partisan elections. No other judgeships in Michigan require party nomination.
She has rightly called the system "deeply flawed" and pledged to continue her efforts to reform the court and make it, and campaign funding of judicial races, more transparent.
Her commitment to transparency, in fact, was most apparent in two local cases.
In 2002 86th District Judge Tom Gilbert, who was seen smoking pot at a Rolling Stones concert, was suspended for six months without pay; he didn't seek re-election in 2004.
In 2006, 86th District Judge Michael Haley was censured by the high court for accepting $92 worth of University of Michigan football tickets from an attorney during a court session.
In both cases, Weaver pushed the court to go public with its decisions, a first step toward restoring some semblance of respect for the judicial system.
Weaver blamed the influence of politics for much of the "discord" on the court over the past decade.
She said voting blocs often formed "to promote agendas of political parties and special interests," anathema to her view of the courts.
"It's important to civilization where the public has a place they can go to get a fair shake, where judges are not in the pocket of anybody," she said.
Weaver's grass-roots philosophy of the courts was first apparent in the 12 years she served as Leelanau County Probate Judge, where she earned a reputation for being what a Granholm spokesman called a "tireless advocate for Michigan's children and families."
She then served eight years on the state Court of Appeals and was elected to the Supreme Court in 1994. She won re-election in 2002. When it became obvious the Republicans were not likely to nominate her again this year, she said she would run as an independent. After getting Granholm's promise, the 69-year-old Weaver decided to step down.
In an exclusive interview last week, Weaver told the Record-Eagle "I have done all that I can do as a justice and now believe that I can be of most use as a citizen in helping further the critically needed reforms of the judicial system."
Make no mistake. The reforms she talks about are critical. The Supreme Court in particular cannot continue to run the current shell game which erodes public trust in the court.
Citizens can't be expected to accept the charade that justices who are nominated to run by a political party and get huge sums of campaign cash from special-interest groups (often anonymously) can then impartially dispense justice.
It's a system built for abuse.
Elizabeth Weaver has long gone her own way, and the way she left the job was vintage Weaver.
She believed a new judge from northern Michigan would bring independence and a different perspective to a court she said is dominated by justices from the Detroit-to-Lansing beltway.
"I think I'm proof of the pudding; I'm independent," she said. "That independent-thinking judge is not agenda-driven and does not hold to political party lines."
"Independent justices ... don't go along to get along; they can't be bullied," she said.
She never was.
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