Michigan Third District Court of Appeals

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The Michigan Third District Court of Appeals is located in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Contents

Overview

The Third District office handles cases arising from the counties of Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph, Branch, Van Buren, Kalamazoo, Allegan, Barry, Eaton, Ionia, Kent, Ottawa, Musketon, and Newaygo.[1]

Current Judges

Partisan 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 Third District Court of Appeals that would have been removed if the Reform Michigan Government Now was successful are Joel Hoekstra and David Sawyer.[3]

Evidence of Democratic Maneuvers

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

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