Well, if given a choice, would you choose to know why people who are in authority make decisions for or would you prefer to be left in the dark? Michigan Supreme Court Justice Betty Weaver finds herself on the outs with five of the seven about that. And she’s on Double Secret Probation with her Republican colleagues on the bench: Justices Markman, Corrigan, and Young. I have written about them here before and this time I think they’ve gone way over the edge. …Might be politics, or it might be that they simply cannot abide Justice Weaver’s commitment to letting the people of Michigan know what’s really going on.
The three have decided to send her to the JTC, the Judicial Tenure Commission, for what they say is a breach of ethics…speaking about a case AFTER it was concluded.
This is bad? Apparently so, and yesterday all of them with the exceptions of Justices Weaver and Hathaway pushed through another version of their gag order: can’t talk about anything at any time. How’s this square with the past? Not so well if I read aright.
Here’s the language adopted by the Michigan Supreme Court in the Canons or the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct…what it sees as ethical behavoir:
Canon 3A6
A judge should abstain from public comment about a pending or impending proceeding in any court, and should require a similar abstention on the part of court personnel subject to the judge’s direction and control. This subsection does not prohibit a judge from making public statements in the course of official duties or from explaining for public information the procedures of the court or the judge’s holdings or actions.
As long as the matter is not pending or impending…the judge may speak and write. And you can bet that Justice Weaver knows what that means. What she’s been about from the beginning is “explaining for public information” and letting people know what’s gong on. So far not too many people have paid any attention…it’s the Supreme Court, it’s law, it’s dull.
It may be that we owe a debt of gratitude to the remaining Engler Three (all appointees of the former governor) for bringing this all into the light. I’m sure it wasn’t their intention to be the subject of their own inquiry…but you never know; it may turn out that way yet. Clif Taylor thought he was being awfully smart, too, in attacking Justice Weaver.
It’s no surprise that people under authority aren’t eager to have their every jot, tittle, and utterance available for public scrutiny. But, really, that’s too bad; they are acting on my behalf, I have a right to know. You do, too.
And as Justice Weaver so often say: “Do right and fear not.”