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Interviews with Michigan State Supreme Court Justices
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- Description:
- Part 1: Michigan Supreme Court Justice Thomas G. Kavanagh relates his family history and discusses his father's work with newspapers and the Democratic Party, his own early schooling, and his first jobs in law firms. He also discusses his judicial career, starting with the newly created Court of Appeals in 1964 and then running for the Michigan Supreme Court in 1968. He provides an insiders view of the Court during his tenure and discusses the various political and personal differences that arose among the justices. Part 2: Michigan Supreme Court Justice Thomas G. Kavanagh talks about the Justice John Swainson bribery case, his own involvement in the investigation and his view that Swainson was "framed". Kavanagh also discusses the turmoil on the Court in the mid-1970s and talks candidly about his colleagues, including Justices Mary Coleman, Charles Levin, John Fitzgerald, Thomas Brennan, Thomas M. Kavanagh, James Ryan, and Dorothy Comstock Riley. After 1976, Kavanagh says, the Court stabilzed and a new spirit of good will and collegiality was embraced by all of the justices. Kavanagh covers a wide range of general topics, including legislative apportionment, mandatory arbitration, the difficulty of campaigning for election, judicial conferences, the Michigan Supreme Court's involvement with the State Bar of Michigan and its disciplinary procedures, term limits for Chief Justices, and the selection process for Supreme Court Justices. He finishes by describing his speech to the Kalamazoo County Bar Association, which was titled, "Pot, Pornography, and Prostitution," by the program organizers.
- Date Created:
- 1990-11-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Interviews with Michigan State Supreme Court Justices
- Description:
- Part 1: Michigan Supreme Court Justice Thomas E. Brennan talks about his family history, his father and mother, attending Catholic school, and the University of Detroit Law School, opening his own law practice, being elected to the Common Pleas Court, being appointed to the Circuit Court by Governor Romney in 1963, being elected to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1966, and becoming Chief Justice in 1969. Brennan says that practicing law prepared him well for the rigors of being a judge. Justice Brennan also discusses what he calls "the myth of non-partisanship, the nature of democracy, the political nature of the selection of Chief Justice, the notion of representation in a democracy, the nature of leadership, the establishment of the State Appellate Defenders Office, the creation of the State Bar Grievance Board in 1969, the election process for judges in the Detroit area, the establishment of a Criminal division of the Detroit District Court, economic stability, civil disorder, and the 1967 race riots in Detroit. Part 2: Michigan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Brennan talks about judicial activism and the prospective vs. retrospective changing of Common Law, using humor in writing court opinions, and making decisions by law or by conscience in a judicial context and whether his Catholicism is an issue in performing his public duties. Brennan also discusses the controversy surrounding his founding of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing and the school's mission of offering practical scholarship to a broad and diverse study body. Part 3: Michigan Supreme Court Justice Thomas E. Brennan talks about a case concerning the apportionment of the Michigan Legislature in the 1970s, having his portrait presented to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1980, and his activities since leaving the court in 1973.
- Date Created:
- 1991-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Interviews with Michigan State Supreme Court Justices
- Description:
- Michigan Supreme Court Justice Charles L. Levin talks about his childhood and youth in Detroit, Michigan. Levin warmly remembers his parents, Judge Theodore Levin and Rhoda Katzin Levin, recounts his family's immigration from Eastern Europe and the hardships they overcame to establish themselves in America. Levin also talks about his Jewish upbringing in Detroit, his religious beliefs, his father's death, his mother's character, and his own marriage, children, and divorce.
- Date Created:
- 2002-11-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Interviews with Michigan State Supreme Court Justices
- Description:
- Michigan Supreme Court Justice Theodore Souris discusses his family history, living in Detroit and then Ann Arbor as a student, joining the Air Force in 1943, and finally returning to the University of Michigan in 1945 to finish his undergraduate degree and complete law school. Souris also talks about knowing Michigan legends G. Mennen Williams and Neil Staebler, practicing law after graduating, being involved in the election recounts of 1950 and 1952, and his unexpected appointment to the Michigan Supreme Court. Souris says that his first weeks on the Court were challenging, but that he worked quickly to initiate needed changes in such matters as the process of acquiring copies of briefs and creating "Window Reports." He also weighs in on the statistical analyses of the Court's work, court processes, writing opinions, the relationships of Justices during his tenure and the work of such colleagues as Justices Talbot Smith and George Edwards. The Michigan Supreme Court confronted many thorny legal issues during his time, Souris says and chief among these were Michigan court reform, the one-man grand jury law, government immunity, presumption of undue influence, summary judgment, and the right of discovery. Souris discusses each and how such cases and court decisions affect the creation and revision of laws.
- Date Created:
- 1990-11-05T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Interviews with Michigan State Supreme Court Justices
- Description:
- Michigan Supreme Court Justice Lawrence Lindemer discusses the judicial selection process and his own appointment to the Court after the death of Justice Thomas M. Kavanagh. Lindemer also talks about the inner workings of the Court and the court system, including the philosophical and geographical differences among the justices, judicial activism, the importance of face to face communication and collegiality in the judicial process, the effects of the 1974 elections on judicial relations, the overall power of the Court, and the effect on justices of John Swainson's resignation in 1975. Lindemer reviews legal and social issues confronted by the Court during his tenure, including double jeopardy, taxation, sentencing guidelines, and workers compensation.
- Date Created:
- 1990-10-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Interviews with Michigan State Supreme Court Justices
- Description:
- Part 1: Michigan Supreme Court Justice George C. Edwards discusses his family history, his father, his education at Southern Methodist University and Harvard, his early jobs, serving in the military, his involvement in the labor movement, and his appointment to the Probate Court bench. He also talks about various cases heard by the Michigan Supreme Court during his tenure, including Comstock versus General Motors, Scholle versus Hare, Baker versus Carr, West Versus Norther Tree. Edwards says that he eventually resigned from the Court to become Police Commissioner of Detroit and that he has always aspired to be a writer and is currently writing a book about his father. Edwards' wife Peg joins the interview in progress. Part 2: Michigan Supreme Court Justice George C. Edwards talks about various issues and cases, including judicial selection, partisanship, juvenile injury, election recounts and the abuse of paper ballots, the People's Savings Bank, and Certain-Teed Products. He also discusses his colleagues, most notably, Justices Eugene F. Black, Talbot Smith, Leland Carr, John Voelker, and Harry Kelly.
- Date Created:
- 1990-12-03T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Interviews with Michigan State Supreme Court Justices
- Description:
- Part 1: Harold Hoag shares stories of his time as Deputy Clerk and Clerk of the Michigan Supreme Court between 1967 and 1982. Hoag talks about deciding to become a lawyer while in the Navy, his law school experience, the role of the law clerk in the judicial process,and the Supreme Court Justices he served under, and how they dealt with cases and how he interacted with each. He also discusses the effect the addition of female justices had on the Court, the law in general, and the history of law enforcement in the United States. Hoag ends by reminiscing about his parents and his childhood. Part 2: Harold Hoag, clerk and Deputy Clerk of the Michigan Supreme Court talks about the duties of the clerk, his desire to conduct his office in as apolitical a manner as possible, the partisan nature of the court, shepherding cases through the system and assigning them to the justices by lottery, hiring his own assistant when the case load became to much to bear, and playing "gatekeeper" in the face of the appeals process. Hoag says that the justices have become more like "CEOs and less like judges" as the work load has increased and they have been forced to bring in more clerks and other staff to manage the extreme caseloads. Hoag concludes by recalling the women justices with whom he worked and his legal training at the University of Michigan, and explaining how he came to the Michigan Supreme Court.
- Date Created:
- 2006-03-27T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Interviews with Michigan State Supreme Court Justices
- Description:
- Part 1: Michigan Supreme Court Justice John B. Swainson discusses his educational background, serving in all three branches of Michigan government, his election to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1970, and his first case on the Court, People vs. Jondreau, which dealt with Native American fishing rights. Swainson also talks about the Joe Smeekens case, his colleague Justice Gene Black, the ramifications of Roe vs. Wade in Michigan, the issue of compensation for lawyers when representing indigent clients, and the famous marijuana possession case of political activist and White Panther Party founder, John Sinclair. Swainson notes that the stated date of the interview is incorrect and that the actual date is October 18. Part 2: Michigan Supreme Court Justice John B. Swainson discusses "Parochi-Aid" school funding, billboard restrictions, drug prosecutions, the case of People vs. Matish, the Detroit Police Officers' Association vs. City of Detroit and his involvement with their arbitration after his court term, the election of judges, the geographic dispersal of judges, the impact of the creation of the Michigan Court of Appeals in 1964, and televising trials. He also talks about the importance of preserving judicial history, the career of William A. Fletcher, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the portraits of former Justices, and his view of the function of the judiciary in the state of Michigan.
- Date Created:
- 1990-10-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Interviews with Michigan State Supreme Court Justices
- Description:
- Part 1: In an oral history interview, former Michigan Supreme Court Justice John W. Fitzgerald discusses his family background, serving in the armed forces, attending law school at the University of Michigan, the early days of his legal career, and running for the the Michigan Senate in 1958 and the newly created Michigan Court of Appeals in 1964. Justice Fitzgerald also talks about his decision to leave the Court of Appeals to serve on the Michigan Supreme Court, the Supreme Court election process, his own campaigns and his decision not to accept campaign contributions from lawyers. Fitzgerald further provides insight on the Supreme Court's decision making process, the composition of the Court during his tenure and the famous Scholle vs. Secretary of State case. Part 2: In an oral history interview, former Michigan Supreme Court Justice John W. Fitzgerald talks about his early days on the Michigan Supreme Court and difficult issues faced by the Court in the nineteen-seventies, including selecting a new Chief Justice in 1974, the death of Justice Thomas M. Kavanagh in 1975, and the investigation of Justice John Swainson later that same year. He says that some cases suffered during that period because the Court was "short-handed". Justice Fitzgerald also discusses memorable cases decided by the Court during his tenure, including People vs. Beavers and the "Poletown" case, the legislative role of the court, and collegiality amongst the justices.
- Date Created:
- 1990-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Interviews with Michigan State Supreme Court Justices
- Description:
- Part 1: Mary S. Coleman, the first woman elected to the Michigan Supreme Court and the first to serve as its Chief Justice, talks about her early life in Texas, her family's move to Washington, D.C., her parents, her father's death, her high school years, meeting Oliver Wendall Holmes, dating, attending the University of Maryland and attending law school at George Washington University, where she was often the only female in her classes. She also talks about getting her law degree in 1939, marrying her husband a few days later, starting a job at the USDA, and later moving to her husband's hometown of Marshall, Michigan to support his bid for the Michigan Senate in 1948. Part 2: Mary S. Coleman, the first woman elected to the Michigan Supreme Court and the first to serve as its Chief Justice, talks about her husband Creighton's campaign for the Michigan Senate in 1948, his legal practice, her life as a homemaker, her husband's law firm, and pursuing her own legal career in Michigan. Coleman also discusses dealing with sexism in the judicial system, the respectful way she was treated by judges, her interest in children's issues, foster care, juvenile court and social work, and how she eventually become a court referee and later, in 1960, a Probate Court judge. Coleman calls herself a "conservative" and then describes her support for the Equal Rights Amendment and other women's rights initiatives. She concludes by describing the working environment within the Court, its terrible reputation, the hostility between the justices, the divisions over workers compensation cases, the influence of unions, the Swainson scandal and its impact on the Court and her own role in deciding key cases. Part 3: Mary S. Coleman, the first woman elected to the Michigan Supreme Court and the first to serve as its Chief Justice, concludes her reminisces of her time on the Court. Coleman describes efforts to reorganize the lower court system to bring efficiency and clarity to the system, working with unions, Coleman Young, and others to influence legislation restructuring the courts and breaking with old systems of patronage and favor. Coleman also discusses fighting to get better pay for her court employees while she was a Probate judge, attempts to bring fairness and equity to pay levels across the state, the battle over reapportionment following the 1980 census, her resignation from the Court so that Governor William Milliken could appoint her replacement, various colleagues on the Court and the support from her family which she says she has enjoyed throughout her career.
- Date Created:
- 1991-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Interviews with Michigan State Supreme Court Justices