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August 8th, 2022 Political Note #491 Justice Richard Bernstein(D) and State Rep Kyra Harris Bolden
2022 General Election=
Michigan’s Supreme Court has a 4-3 Democratic majority. Two Supreme Court justices have completed their eight-year term. A Democrat — Richard Bernstein and a Republican — Brian Zahra. Both are running for election. Richard Bernstein has a Republican opponent – Attorney Paul Hudson. Brian Zahra has a Democratic opponent – State Rep Kyra Harris Bolden.
Elections are state-wide. Nominations are partisan. The elections themselves are non-partisan. Voters who do not pay attention and see the names for the first time at the voting booth will not know Democrats from Republicans.
If Republicans win both seats, that will shift the Court to a 4-3 majority in favor of Republicans. If one Republican and one Democrat are elected, the Court will remain a 4-3 Democratic majority. If Democrats win both seats, Democrats will have a 5-2 majority.
Politically charged issues come before the Michigan Supreme Court. Here are a couple.
- The Michigan Attorney General filed charges against the Governor and eight others in connection with the shift of the city of Flint out of the regional water system into relying on water from the Flint River.The consequent illnesses and deaths were the basis for the charges. The Michigan Supreme Court threw out the case – because the prosecutors had brought the case via a single judge sitting as a grand jury. The Attorney General’s office has announced it will proceed with the case, this time, presumably, with a grand jury. The Michigan Supreme Court will be heard from again.
- The Attorney General and the Governor urged the Michigan Supreme Court to take up the suspension of a 1931 Michigan law immediately.
A lower court had suspended the 1931 law making an abortion for a purpose other than protecting a woman’s life a crime. Had the 1931 law not been suspended, the 1931 law would have gone into effect after the US Supreme Court overruled Roe v Wade.
Who gets elected to the Michigan Supreme Court makes a difference.
Consider Justice Richard H. Bernstein.
Richard H. Bernstein is indominable. Not yet 50, he is running for his second term as a Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. He insists that, more important than law school quality or grades, the most important quality for a lawyer or a judge is life experience. Richard H Bernstein has had quite a life experience. Born blind and declared legally blind at age 13, he is, not necessarily in order, a marathon runner, politician, lawyer, and judge. He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Michigan and, after a law suit about the LSAT which required reliance on sight, was admitted to and graduated from Northwestern’s law school. He learned to rely on memorizing and extraordinary hard work to get through school, for his legal practice, and his work as a judge.
After law school, Richard Bernstein followed his siblings into his father’s well known law firm. His primary practice was disability law. He has had some setbacks. He lost a convention vote when he sought the Democratic nomination for Attorney General. He was injured while in New York by a cyclist in Central Park, requiring a long and painful recovery. While the Supreme Court was operating electronically during the pandemic, he was criticized by Republicans for participating electronically from Dubai.
Attorney Paul Hudson is Richard H. Bernstein’s opponent in this. Hudson was the starting catcher for Cornell’s baseball team and runs marathons. A catcher who runs marathons is almost as much an anomaly as a blind man running a marathon. He is head of his firm’s appellate practice and highly regarded for his writing. He probably should be highly regarded for his ability to dodge political hot buttons while being nominated for the Michigan Supreme Court. This same convention nominated extremist candidates for Attorney General and Secretary of State.
State Representative Kyra Harris Bolden for the Michigan Supreme Court
State Rep Kyra Harris Bolden was born in Southfield, lives in Southfield, and is in her second term representing Southfield in the State House. She went to Grand Valley State University in Allendale and received her law degree from University of Detroit Mercy. She would bring passion and perspective to the Michigan Supreme Court. Consider this opinion piece she wrote in opposition to a bill that would, in effect, prevent teaching about the evils of racism.
“My great-grandfather’s name was Jesse Lee Bond. He was a 20-year-old cotton farmer from Tennessee. On April 28, 1939, he went to the S.Y. Wilson Store in Arlington, Tennessee, to buy farm supplies. … After his purchase, Bond asked for a receipt from the cashier, Sam Wilson, the owner’s son. …[A]n argument transpired, [h]owever, Sam Wilson, grudgingly, produced the receipt.
When [the store owner] Charles Robert Wilson heard what happened between my great grandfather and Sam Wilson, he became enraged and immediately sent Sam to bring my great grandfather and the rightfully purchased goods back to the store. Jesse returned to the store with his Aunt Luanna Bond. Moments after they entered the store, Charles Robert Wilson and his friend and co-worker, William “Bud” Johnson started shooting at Jesse. They chased him out of the store, and with the help of others, caught him. They brought him back to the town square and in front of the store, they shot him to death. He was then castrated, and they dragged his body from behind a truck to the nearby Hatchie River where he was staked to the riverbed.”
Kyra Harris Bolden continues the story, but this segment is enough to get a flavor of how different she is from Justice Brian Zahra.
Brian Zahra is running for a third term on the Michigan Supreme Court. He attended Catholic schools growing up, graduating from Divine Child High School in Dearborn. He got his BA from Wayne State in Detroit and worked his way through college and law school at University of Detroit Mercy by operating a health and beauty aid store he owned and eventually turned into a grocery. He clerked with a US District Court Judge and then joined a law firm. He served as a County Circuit Court judge for four years and then was appointed by a Republican governor to the Court of Appeals. Seven years after an unsuccessful run for the state Supreme Court in 2004, he was appointed to the Supreme Court. In 2014, he was elected outright.
Two examples from his time on the Court of Appeals suggest the direction of Justice Brian Sahra’s thinking. He was part of one three judge panel that upheld a Michigan statute prohibiting public employers from recognizing same-sex marriage. Another panel he was on found domestic partner benefit plans were not constitutional in Michigan.
Though Michigan makes a reasonable effort to make the election of judges non-partisan, that judges are nominated by political parties in an inescapable fact. The nominees bring to the election both a commitment to following the law as they see it and an understanding of the law that reflects the political party they belong to. These judges run for office. Their websites have a donate button just as if they were running for Congress. State Supreme Courts are enormously important for the existence of a just society and sustaining our democracy. I urge you to make donations to Justice Richard H. Bernstein and State Rep Kyra Harris Bolden.
OTHER STATE COURT ELECTIONS
North Carolina (Political Note #443) will elect two justices this fall. North Carolina has a system similar to Michigan’s except that candidates for the state supreme court now run under a party label. The Court is currently composed of 4 Democrats and 3 Republicans. The two seats up for election are both held by Democrats. Should the Republicans win either of the two seats
One Justice, Sam Ervin IV is running for reelection.
Judge Lucy Noble Inman, currently a member of the Court of the Appeals, is running for the seat which is open because the sitting justice is retiring.
One visible issue facing the North Carolina Supreme Court is redistricting. The Democratic majority has found that the districts are unconstitutionally gerrymandered. Prior to the 2020 election, which the Court was considering the matter, Republicans and Democrats agreed to a deal that changed seats from 10-3 Republican to 8-5 Republican. Prior to the 2022 election, the Court imposed districts that were likely to lead to 7 Republicans, 6 Democrats, and one toss-up seat. There was an agreement that districts would be looked at again before 2024. If there is a Republican majority, some predict the Court would allow districting that would lead to 12 Republican seats and 2 Democratic seats.
Ohio (Political Note #444) has an election process like North Carolina. Partisan nomination of judges and election with party designation. Ohio’s Supreme Court has a 4-3 Republican majority. Three seats are up for election. The Chief Justice and two Associate Justices.
The Chief Justice, a Republican, is retiring. Two Associate Justices, one a Republican and one a Democrat are competing for this position. The Democrat is Associate Justice Jennifer Brunner. While the Chief Justice has considerable authority, whether the Democrat or the Republican is elected to that post will not affect the partisan composition of the Court. If the Republican is elected Chief, the Democrat remains on the Court in her Associate Justice position. The Republican Governor would appoint a Republican replacement. If the Democrat is elected Chief, the Republican remains on the Court in her Associate Justice position. The Republican Governor would appoint a Republican replacement.
The elections for Associate Justice could change the partisan composition of the Court. Both Associate Justices up for election are Republicans. If either of them loses, the Court will shift to 4-3 Democratic. The two Democrats come from quite different low-income backgrounds. Marilyn Zayas, a Latina, came to Ohio from East Harlem to work for Proctor and Gamble. She went to law school having shifted her objectives. Terri Jamison, an African American, came to Ohio from West Virginia for a CETA job where she was trained in technology. She eventually went to law school having shifted her objectives.
Redistricting has also been a visible issue for the Ohio Court. Five times, the Chief Justice voting with the Democrats, the state redistricting commission (composed of elected officials) and the legislature has given lip service to Court orders to make districts conform to the state constitutional prohibition against gerrymandering. Because the Court has no authority to create new districts, the Redistricting Commission and the legislature has simply waited out the Court. The Democratic candidate for Attorney General has filed a criminal complaint against the Redistricting Commission and its members for dereliction of duty and interference with civil rights. These complaints could lead to jail time for members of the commission.
Illinois is up next. See Political Note #492.
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