July 16, 2025 Len’s Political Note #825 Michigan Supreme Court Justices: Megan Cavanagh and Noah Hood.
2026 General Election
Justice Cavanagh Justice Hood
In November, 2008 Democrat Diane Marie Hathaway, daughter of a Detroit police officer, was elected to the standard eight-year term as a Michigan Supreme Court Justice. Less than five years later, effective on January 21, 2013, Justice Hathaway retired from the Michigan Supreme Court. When the Republican Governor appointed Chief Circuit Court Judge David Viviano to replace her on February 27, 2013, the Republican majority on the Court became 5-2.
Hathaway’s resignation was no ordinary matter. It was a step on the way to a January 29, 2013 guilty plea to a federal charge of mortgage fraud and a subsequent plea deal. She had moved around property ownership in Michigan and Florida without informing her bank, avoiding a foreclosure and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
Hathaway’s actions were unquestionably crimes, recognized by people from both parties. Early in the controversy, Gretchen Whitmer, then the leader of Democrats in the State Senate, said that Hathaway should step down if the charges against her were true.
The Republicans could not sustain the 5-2 majority. Democrat Megan Cavanagh, of whom we will hear later, was elected in 2018, reducing the Republican majority to 4-3. In 2020, Democrat Bridget Mary McCormack was reelected and Democrat Elizabeth Welch was elected for the first time, giving the Democrats a 4-3 majority.
Republican David Viviano retired in 2024. He was replaced by the election of Democrat Kimberly Thomas, creating a 5-2 Democratic majority. In 2025, Republican Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement resigned. Governor Gretchen Whitmer appointed Democrat Noah Hood, giving the Democrats a 6-1 majority.
In 2026, two State Supreme Court Justices are up for election. Democrat Megan Cavanagh, named Chief Justice after Elizabeth Clement left the court. Noah Hood, appointed in 2025 and obliged to stand for election at the earliest opportunity is also a Democrat. Their election would not change the partisan composition of the court or the court personnel. Even if both Democrats were to lose, the composition of the court would still be 4-3 Democratic.
Megan Cavanagh
Her uncle was Jerome Cavanagh. Elected mayor of Detroit when he was 33, a progressive with Black support, he ousted an incumbent. Reelected by a large margin in 1966, he was overwhelmed by the Detroit riot of 1967. After the riot, he begam his talk “Today we stand amidst the ashes of our hopes.”
Her dad, Michael Cavanagh was the second longest serving Michigan State Supreme Court Justice, serving for four years as Chief Justice. Among his rulings, he is remembered for establishing the right, in criminal cases, for review of sentencing. In a case in which he ruled for cosmetologists and against a prohibition against their cutting men’s hair, he stated “All hair is equal.”
Megan Cavanagh was elected to the Michigan supreme court four years after her father left the court. She notes that she grew up with cousins who were or became lawyers, cousins who were or became judges or politicians. It was not clear that she was going to become an attorney. She had majored in engineering at Michigan and worked as an engineering consultant after graduating. Finding that a substantial number of the questions she was asked and had to answer were better answered by an attorney, she gave up on her escape from the family business and went to law school.
In private practice, she specialized in appeals. In 2018, running in Michigan’s distinctive election system without specific places, with nominees by political party but without the party listed on the ballot, Megan Cavanagh was elected to one of the two spots open that year. She had come in second.
On the Supreme Court, Megan Cavanagh continued the Supreme Court’s connection her father had developed with the tribal courts in Michigan and filled her office with memorabilia associated with her father. Otherwise, she set her own course as a Supreme Court Justice.
In a remarkable interview with the Sophia Project, Megan Cavanagh explained her preference for appellate work fit her personality. She liked fixing things, which is very different from trial work. She said her engineering training helped he with her writing, with being clear about the facts even though she would often start writing about a case beginning with the legal arguments. Thoughtful about her writing, she explained that “You are done writing when there is nothing left for you to take out.”
Thoughtful about the process of judging, thoughtful about the criminal justice sysem within society, Megan Cavanagh quoted South African spiritual and political leader Desmond Tutu: “At some ppomt we have to stop pulling people out of the river. We have to go upstream and figure out why they are falling in.”
Megan Cavanagh was elected by her peers as Chief Justice because of her thoughtfulness and her presence. Now. In 2026, Megan Cavanagh has to get elected to the Michigan Supreme Court again. Help her stay another eight years. DONATE to her campaign.
Noah Hood
Noah Wood is different from Megan Cavanagh. He’s a man. He is Black. He is fifteen years younger than the 54 year old Cavanagh. He was a litigator and, for five yeas, a federal prosecutor. He went to Ivy League schools – Yale for his BA, Harvard for his JD. He does not come from a family of judges. His grandfather was Nicholas Hood, a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Council. In Detroit, in 1965, while Jerome Cavanagh was getting ready to be reelected mayor and Nicholas Hood, Sr.was elected to the City Council, the second Black man to attain that office and the only Black on the City Council during the terrible riot of 1967.
Noah Hood was appointed by the Governor, in 2019, to fill a vacancy in the state’s third circuit court of appeals. In 2020, he was elected to stay in that position. In 2022, Governor Whitman appointed him to fill a vacancy in the State Supreme Court. In November of that year, he was elected to complete the term of office which ends in January, 2027. Noah Wood is running for what would be his first full eight year term on Michigan’s Supreme Court.
On the Supreme Court Noah Hood dealt with two election cases,
- Wood rejected a request for delay in printing the ballot for governor while Perry Johnson appealed The Board of Elections’ rejection of his signatures. Perry Johnson was a Republican who had written books about quality control and founded a company that certified and registered companies’ compliance with International Office of Standards (ISO) and a private laboratory accreditation firm for laboratories. He announced his run for Governor of Michigan in 2021. The Board of Elections ruled him off that ballot for insufficient signatures, insufficient because nearly 10,000 signatures were collected illegally.
- Wood allowed college professor Cornell West’s Justice for All Party to be on the presidential ballot in 2024. West and his Party were denied access by the Secretary of State because the submission was. Improperly notarized. After West and his party did not submit a response, the Secretary of State ruled him off the presidential ballot. The Supreme Court upheld a ruling by a Court of Claims Judge that the Secretary of State and the Board of Elections had misapplied the rules about notarization.
Noah Weed has been a valuable addition to the Michigan Supreme Court. Help keep him in that role. DONATE to his campaign.
Other judicial races.
Montana
District Court Judge Amy Eddy, a moderate who refused to solicit a now permissible partisan endorsement is seeking to keep Montana’s Supreme Court non-partisan. Her opponent, Dan Wilson, who has the endorsement of the Republican Party, was defeated by another moderate in 2024. In March, Amy Eddy reported having $240,000 available for campaigning. The Republican endorsee, generally considered right wing, Dan Wilson reported having $196,000 of which $20,000 came from the state Republican Party. There are no polls for this race, DONATE to Amy Eddy. Keep Montana’s Court non-partisan. See Len’s Political Note #749
North Carolina
Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls is seeking a second term on the North Carolina Supreme Court. When the North Carolina Supreme Court had a Democratic majority, it ruled that racial gerrymandering was responsible for the nature of the state’s Congressional delegation and required redistricting. Briefly, this state which is roughly is roughly even in its political character, had an evenly divided congressional delegation. After the state legislature required Supreme court justices to run in partisan elections, the Court gradually shifted to its current 5-2 Republican composition. Reelection of Anita Earls, the adopted daughter of an interracial couple who had to move out of Missouri because that state did not then allow interracial marriages, would stop that slide and put North Carolina into a position to move toward a Democratic majority in its Supreme Court. DONATE to Anita Earls’ reelection. See Len’s Political Note #787.
