Mich. Supreme Court Justice Resigns
Elizabeth Weaver is resigning from the Michigan Supreme Court, the governor's office said Thursday, just days before Republicans and Democrats select their nominees for election to the high court.
Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, said Weaver, 69, would formally tender her resignation later in the morning and appear with the governor at a news event at noon.
The governor will appoint a replacement, and that action doesn't require the approval of the state Legislature, Boyd said.
Weaver was the lone independent on the seven-member court, alongside three Republicans and three Democrats. And, now, Granholm will get to tip the court in the Dems' favor.
"It means that a Democratic philosophy, from this point on, will be applied to all of these judicial cases," said Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick.
"Methodically, the Democrats -- with Weaver's help over the last six, seven months or so, since [Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice] Cliff Taylor left -- had been undoing what [former Governer] Engler's court had been doing for the past five years," Skubick said.
Weaver told the Traverse City Record-Eagle she decided to step down after securing Granholm's promise to appoint a northern Michigan judge to replace her on the court.
"I have done all that I can do as a justice, and now believe that I can be of most use as a citizen in helping further the critically needed reforms of the judicial system,'' Weaver told the Record-Eagle. ``Now I will be able to work and speak freely.''
Earlier this summer Weaver had announced her intention to seek a third eight-year term on the court. She was going to run as an independent.
Republicans nominated Weaver in her first two campaigns.
(Copyright 2010 by WWJ Radio. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
