“Republican” Justice Clement to retire, giving Whitmer another Supreme Court appointment

From The Mid­west­ern­er:

Michi­gan Supreme Court Chief Jus­tice Eliz­a­beth Clement is resign­ing from her post to lead a nation­al non­prof­it focused on state courts — a move that will pave the way for a big­ger lib­er­al major­i­ty on the state’s high­est court.

Clement announced on Wednes­day that she will leave the bench by April 30, giv­ing Gov. Gretchen Whit­mer the chance to name her replace­ment and fur­ther solid­i­fy Demo­c­ra­t­ic influ­ence on the tech­ni­cal­ly non­par­ti­san Michi­gan Supreme Court.

Clement, 47, is a Repub­li­can-nom­i­nat­ed jus­tice but has crossed ide­o­log­i­cal lines in sev­er­al rul­ings. Her depar­ture means Demo­c­ra­t­ic nom­i­nees or appointees will have a 6–1 major­i­ty on the Michi­gan Supreme Court after Whit­mer appoints a replace­ment. […]

She approved con­test­ed pro­pos­als that cre­at­ed an inde­pen­dent redis­trict­ing com­mis­sion and enshrined abor­tion pro­tec­tions in the state con­sti­tu­tion, Bridge Michi­gan reports.

Of course, Gretchen Whit­mer crowed about Clemen­t’s record in vot­ing with Democ­rats, call­ing her an “inde­pen­dent mind­ed jurist.”

Read the rest here.

For con­ser­v­a­tives, there is at least an oppor­tu­ni­ty that we might nom­i­nate and elect a seri­ous rule-of-law jus­tice rather than sheep­ish­ly re-elect­ing Clement again.