03/22/2007

Justice Weaver slams majority

'Misleading' minutes creating a 'power block?'

By PATRICK SULLIVAN

psullivan@record-eagle.com

Weaver

TRAVERSE CITY — A majority of state Supreme Court justices use inaccurate records of meetings to abuse power, revise history and keep their decision-making secret, based on a memorandum issued this week by Justice Elizabeth Weaver.

The charges are the latest blow between Weaver, a Glen Arbor Republican, and the four other Republicans on the court, Chief Justice Clifford Taylor and justices Maura Corrigan, Stephen Markman and Robert Young Jr., who Weaver refers to as "the majority of four.”

Taylor denies the allegations.

Weaver's accusations come in response to the approval of minutes from meetings when justices discussed how and when they should remove themselves from cases due to a conflict of interest. Weaver sent her memorandum, dated March 20, to Gov. Jennifer Granholm and members of the state legislature.

Weaver said it takes months for minutes from administrative meetings to be approved, and when they are, some contain inaccurate or misleading information.

"The current traditional minutes processing system makes it possible for a power block of four justices, acting secretly and unaccountably, and as an unrestrained, super-legislature, to conduct the people's business in a disorderly, unprofessional, unfair, and haphazard manner,” Weaver wrote.

Marcia McBrien, Supreme Court spokeswoman, said Taylor had no comment and that he didn't believe Weaver's memorandum contained anything new.

"(Taylor) is declining to comment because he believes he's already addressed Justice Weaver's allegations in statements he's already made,” McBrien said.

McBrien referred to a statement Taylor released in January in which he wrote that Weaver's "repeated attacks” have "damaged the public's confidence in the Court.”

"If Justice Weaver truly believes that other Justices are being unethical and abusing their power, she has a duty to report that, without delay, to the Judicial Tenure Commission, the Michigan Attorney General, the FBI, or whatever investigative body she thinks is appropriate,” Taylor wrote.

The other Republican justices have said Weaver is acting out of spite because she was not re-elected chief justice six years ago. In an order released earlier this month, Corrigan called Weaver's efforts to expose injustice in the court "low comedy.”

In December, the majority enacted an emergency gag order for justices that apparently targeted Weaver. McBrien said she was not aware of any justices raising the question of whether this week's memorandum violated that order. Weaver said she is not concerned with that order because she believes it's unconstitutional.

She said she decided to go public with her complaint about how the court's administrative meeting minutes are prepared because she believes the public needs more information when it's time to elect members of the Supreme Court.

"The public's been kept in the dark on the important issue of judicial disqualification for over a year,” Weaver said. "This is not a secret club. My duty to the public is to keep them informed of what I believe they need to know.”