Michigan First District Court of Appeals

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The Michigan First District Court of Appeals is the state appellate court domiciled in Detroit, MI.

Overview

The First District office handles cases arising from the counties of Hillsdale, Lenawee, Monroe, and Wayne. There are currently 7 judges serving the First District Court of Appeals.

Office Contact Information

14th Floor, Cadillac Place, 3020 West Grand Boulevard, Suite 14-300, Detroit, MI 48202-6020.

Organization

The Michigan Court of Appeals was created by the Constitution of 1963, Article VI, Section 1, under which the State of Michigan has "one court of justice." According to the Michigan Court of Appeals website, "The judicial power of the state is vested exclusively in one court of justice which shall be divided into one supreme court, one court of appeals, one trial court of general jurisdiction known as the circuit court, one probate court, and courts of limited jurisdiction that the legislature may establish by a two-thirds vote of the members elected to and serving in each house." The original nine judges that served on the Court of Appeals when it first began in 1965 were: Chief Judge T. John Lesinski, Chief Judge pro tempore John W. Fitzgerald, and Judges Robert B. Burns, John H. Gillis, Donald E. Holbrook, Thomas Giles Kavanagh, Louis D. McGregor, Timothy C. Quinn, and John D. Watts. Ronald L. Dzierbicki was Clerk of the Court. Offices were originally located only in Lansing, Detroit and Grand Rapids. The Southfield office was opened in 1994, and was moved to Troy in 2004.[1]

Current Judges

Michigan 'reform' group proposes removing judges

The Reform Michigan Government Now (RMGN) "insisted its proposal to amend Michigan's Constitution to overhaul the judiciary was intended to be non-partisan in nature - and effect." However, in reading the PowerPoint presentation from the the UAW Region 1-C website, the opposite is evident. Specifically, it is their goal to change the Michigan Court of Appeals from 28 judges to 21. This removes six Republican judges and only one Democratic judge. It would remove no judges appointed by Governor Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat.

According to Dolan Media, "Michigan Lawyers Weekly asked RMGN spokeswoman Dianne Byrum for the specifics behind RMGN's Court of Appeals proposal. When asked why RMGN chose seven as the number of Court of Appeals judgeships it wanted to eliminate, Byrum didn't answer the question. Instead, she said 'the net reduction of judges' wasn't intended 'to mirror the reduction in size of the Legislature or Executive branches.' When pressed for clarification, Byrum said the 'RMGN proposal calls for a reorganizing of the courts.' And, later, after again being asked why RMGN chose to reduce the Court of Appeals by seven judges, she said the seven-judge reduction was 'part of a reorganization of the courts.' 'It is more about reorganizing than picking an exact number to reduce at the Court of Appeals,' Byrum said. Lawyers Weekly then asked why RMGN chose 'term expiration' and, in particular, the Jan. 1, 2011, expiration date, as its 'reduction' criteria. Again, Byrum didn't the answer the question. Instead, she said '[t]erm expiration refers to the end of the elected term for the seven judges that are eliminated.' Then, she said, the 'seven judges whose term[s] end in [2011] are the Court of Appeals judges that are reduced in the proposal.'" [2]

The judges on the Michigan First District Court of Appeals that would have been removed if the Reform Michigan Government Now was successful are Kurtis Wilder and Helene White.[3]

Evidence of Democrat connection

A labor intern for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy unearthed a PowerPoint presentation entitled "Changing the Rules of politics in Michigan to help the Democrats." The presentation revealed that the Democrats' primary aim is to obtain redistricting advantages that would prove particularly helpful when it came to the state judiciary. Slide eight of the presentation stated that obtaining a majority in all branches of the Michigan government was “an extremely expensive and very long shot proposition.” But, according to the presentation, “Redistricting reform by itself will not be approved by the voters.” In order to succeed, “redistricting reform must be a small part of a larger, popular state government reform proposal.” Additionally, it seeks to reduce the Court of Appeals by seven judges, most of them former Republican Governor John Engler appointees."[4]


For the complete 32-slide presentation, click here.

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ Michigan Court of Appeals: History
  2. ↑ Dolan Media
  3. ↑ Dolan Media
  4. ↑ "A Partisan Pill for Michigan's Foundational Problems"
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