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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:
- 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:
- 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:
- Michigan Supreme Court Justice Otis M. Smith talks about growing up in Memphis, Tenn, his family history, working multiple jobs to pay for college, serving in the U.S. military during World War II, entering law school after the war, and his early professional jobs. Smith says that from a very early age he was filled with a burning desire to succeed in life and to make his mark. Smith also discusses the judicial selection process, his own appointment to the Michigan Supreme Court, the geographic makeup of the Court during his tenure, selection of a Chief Justice, and the interaction of the Justices. He then goes on to discuss his colleagues, including Justices Gene Black, Harry Kelly, John Dethmers, George Edwards, Theodore Souris, Thomas Kavanagh, Michael O'Hara and Paul Adams. Smith speaks eloquently of the serious nature of conducting Court business and discusses his own decision making style, and the issues he dealt with in cases such as Scholle versus Hare, the People versus Lochricco, and the Fenestra, Mallory, and Pittsfield Township cases.
- Date Created:
- 1990-10-23T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Interviews with Michigan State Supreme Court Justices
- Description:
- Part 1: Michigan Supreme Court Justice Dennis W. Archer talks about his family history, growing up in Detroit and Cassopolis, MI, teaching, attending the Detroit College of Law, his interest in politics, his nomination to the Michigan Supreme Court and his involvement with the State Bar of Michigan. Justice Archer also discusses his early years on the Court, the role of the Supreme Court, collegiality among the justices, the Cassidy and DiFranco decisions, and the relationship between the Michigan Supreme Courst and the State Bar of Michigan. Part 2: Michigan Supreme Court Justice Dennis W. Archer talks about the State Bar of Michigan and the State Bar Grievance Board, his activities with the American Bar Association, issues facing African-American lawyers, his own contributions to the court, the selection process for Chief Justice, and the practice of law in Michigan. He ends by appraising his colleagues and presenting his vision for the legal profession in regards ethnic and gender diversity.
- Date Created:
- 1991-06-05T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Interviews with Michigan State Supreme Court Justices