Michigan Politics
Simmering Intra-party Discord Erupts on High Court
By George Weeks

What has long been simmering among Republicans on the Michigan Supreme Court is beginning to erupt.

It was no surprise when independent-minded Justice Betty Weaver yet again recently dissented from majority opinions issued by the four other Republicans on the seven-member high court.

She, in fact, wrote the dissent, concurred in by the two Democratic justices, to the Friday ruling that reversed lower court rulings on a budget dispute involving the 46th

Circuit Court, which serves Crawford, Kalkaska, and Otsego counties.

On an earlier, more significant recent case to those of us who favor the bright light of public scrutiny on spending of public bodies, Weaver commendably was in the minority of the 4-3 decision that permitted Eastern Michigan University to keep secret portions of a document on the construction of a multi-million home for EMU's president.

It's not unusual to have testy exchanges among justices within

opinions issued by the U.S. or state supreme courts. There's a lot of such sniping in Washington these days.

But rare is published internal sniping on routine court orders, as opposed to thrashed-out opinions.

It was extraordinary last week when the Michigan Supreme Court issued five pages on what, under normal circumstances, would have been be a routine one-line order appointing Chief 17th District Circuit Judge Paul Sullivan to also fill a vacancy as chief judge of the Kent County Probate Court. Such appointments usually are issued without a peep beyond the locality.

Weaver, herself a former Leelanau County Probate Judge, wrote a dissent complaining that appointing a circuit judge - one without probate experience - as chief judge of a probate court was "unjustified and publicly unexplained."

She advanced a case for another candidate - one unanimously recommended by Kent probate judges and supported by the two Democratic justices. The majority, she said, "denied Kent County the leadership it deserves on its probate court."

My interest here is not in merit of the appointment but in how the spat over it may telegraph more internal strife to come - a tip of the iceberg of the GOP Court Chill.

Supreme Court Public Information Officer Marcia McBrien said what happened on the Kent County order "was beyond unusual: It was unprecedented."

Chief Justice Cliff Taylor, who said he routinely chooses chief judges "roughly 260 times biennially," opined: "Justice Weaver should not resent her colleagues for simply seeing things differently than she does."

He rejected her "peculiar invitation to accept responsibility for the publication of the various matters in her statement."

Justice Robert P. Young Jr. wrote that Weaver, in citing "the presumed" reasons that her choice for the appointment was not picked, "has injured our institutional interest in preserving the dignity of people who unsuccessfully seek appointments by this Court."

Chief Justice Taylor and exChief Justice Weaver ("ex" because Taylor and GOP colleagues eased her out), as expected, declined comment beyond their zingers in the order.

Fellowship does not exist between Weaver and fellow Republicans on Michigan's splintered top bench.

Meanwhile, Weaver presses on with her idea of including term limits on Supreme Court justices in any revised term limits proposal that the Legislature advances to the ballot. There's not much steam right now behind the proposal, but Senator Michelle McManus (R-Lake Leelanau) says she has drafted language to push the Weaver idea when the time is right.

At one point, Weaver, who was elected to the Supreme Court and now has a term that doesn't expire until 2011, said she would leave the court last October. GOP lawmakers, concerned that this would allow Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm to appoint Weaver's replacement, started paying more favorable attention to her commendable ideas for court reform.

Right now, the attention she is getting from the other four Republicans on the Michigan Supreme Court is far from favorable.

Watershed Meeting

In early July, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos met for about 90 minutes with former Governor Bill Milliken at the Milliken residence on Grand Traverse Bay in Traverse City.

Milliken, who differs with DeVos on numerous issues, says they established good rapport but has been mum about specifics. However, at a dinner party last week at the Empire-area Lake Michigan cottage of ex-Oakland County Circuit Judge David Breck, Milliken revealed this:

As DeVos walked toward the vehicle that he drove to Milliken's, the ex-governor's outdoor automatic sprinkler system along the path from the house to the parking area kicked in with a blast.

Milliken said DeVos, dressed in a dark suit, left "absolutely drenched" but in gracious good spirits.

Granholm's Google Ad

When Granholm announced that Google Inc. will invest up to $50 million for an Ann Arbor-area facility that will have 1,000 workers, among those speaking at the ceremony was Bill Milliken Jr., chairman of the Washtenaw County Development Council.

Subsequently, her office told the ex-governor's son that the Michigan Democratic Party, in its campaign TV spot touting the state's coup, wanted to include a brief visual of him speaking. He said that could be misleading because he was there only as an economic development advocate.

Nonetheless, at the end of the ad, there is a momentary - almost a flash - close-up image of Granholm and Milliken together.

As of Saturday, he had not seen the ad, but said he intends to "keep my head down" and out of gubernatorial politics, especially in view of his father's current neutrality in this year's race.

Although Milliken, who owns a real estate company, is not widely recognizable, did the Democratic Party hope for some subliminal message for those who will recognize him?

"No," insists party spokesman Jason Moon. "He was just there." Sure.

George Weeks recently retired after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.