Fired Up Woman of the Week: Michigan Supreme Court CHIEF Justice Marilyn Kelly
Posted on | January 9, 2009 |
Now I admit, I have a soft spot for Justice Kelly. Due to a streak of very fortunate circumstances, she swore me in to the bar in a private ceremony. I will forever be grateful and cherish the moment in time that I was in front of this amazingly smart and steadfast woman. Yesterday, I could not have been more excited to learn that Justice Kelly was elected Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. Now that Justice Diane Hathaway is there as well, coming off the heels of a stunning November 4 victory, the Michigan Supreme Court is balanced and ready to undo the horrific degradation of the law that has become the norm in Michigan for too many years.
Chief Justice Kelly has been the driving force behind many well-reasoned and impassioned dissents over the past eight years. During that time, the Michigan Supreme Court led by ex-Chief Justice Clifford Taylor managed to undo plaintiff rights not only in disregard of precedent, but in sheer defilement of it. Kelly often spoke out through her dissents, along with Justice Michael Cavanagh, attempting to preserve a morsel of justice in Michigan.
The unraveling of the Michigan legal system began in 2000 with Robinson v. City of Detroit, 462 Mich. 439 (2000). It was in that case that the new majority, led by Justice Taylor, decided that stare decisis, or the principle of following precedent, was no longer one to be followed with reverence. Justice Kelly led the charge of dissents based, in part, on the need to adhere to precedent:
The majority’s decision to overrule three distinct, wellheads lines of cases is unparalleled. I am not alone in adjudging such casual regard for prior Michigan jurisprudence and the principles of stare decisis disheartening and unwarranted. One might perceive from the majority’s review of the issues in Fiser, Rogers, and Dedes, that the outcome of this case turns simply on who had the better argument. It does not. The majorities’ positions in those cases became the law of the land. As a consequence, the real question in this case is whether today’s majority has justified its decision with the extraordinary showing that this Court has consistently demanded before overruling precedent. In my view, the majority has not come close to making such a showing.
Now it’s in Chief Justice Kelly’s hands to move Michigan back to justice and away from a place where insurers and big business may run free like buffalo in the Wild West. With an impassioned mind and a quick sense of the law, Chief Justice Kelly is just the person for the job.
Congratulations, Chief Justice Kelly. This is one decision for which you won’t have to write a dissent.
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Tags: Fired Up Woman of the Week > legal precedent > Michigan Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly > Michigan Justice Diane Hathaway > Michigan law > Michigan Supreme Court > stare decisis
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January 9th, 2009 @ 9:19 am
Thank you for the update. I enjoy being educated by you!
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