We predicted it (November 22, 2010) and it has transpired. Robert Preston Young, Jr., is now the Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. You can read about it almost any place. Here’s the story in the Michigan Messenger. The Court has fulfilled Justice Young’s vision and dream (except, perhaps, for ascension to the U.S. Supreme Court) and we now have a Chief Justice who is comfortable with using inappropriate racial and sexual language while doing the business of the Court…and then lying about it.
Before the end of last year’s term there was one excellent decision made by the court, a return to environmental standards as enacted. This was a huge victory for clean water. If Justice Tom Davis had done nothing else in his short tenure on the Court this would be plenty. He wrote the majority opinion and it’s clear and sets right a number of issues where the Taylor Court meddled. In dissent, Justice Young gives indications of impending apoplexy (we had thought that was Justice Markman’s province). I’ll write more about this later, but it will be interesting to watch to see if the court takes another activist approach to again take the teeth out of the law. Will the Republican justices ask for a reconsideration? What other case might they bring forward if they chose to wait? How will THAT play in the media? Enough to make any difference?