Gov. Snyder names replacement state Supreme Court justice

Governor Snyder has filled a vacancy on the Michigan Supreme Court by appointing U-M Law Professor Joan Larsen to replace Mary Beth Kelly, whose resignation to reenter private practice takes effect tomorrow.

“I am absolutely valued and humbled to effectively serve”, Larsen explained captioners at present.

Asked about the role of dark money in Michigan judicial elections – state law allows anonymous issue ads around election dates, meaning prospective litigants could aid a Supreme Court candidate – Larsen noted conflicting arguments for free speech and transparency but declined to weigh in.

Larsen is the third justice with no experience as a judge. Incoming Justice Joan Larsen will be required to search for decision in 2016 for the rest of Justice Kelly’s phrase that is actually finishes inside the… Before that, she was deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. She said she believes in “enforcing the text (of laws) as written”.

Larsen is a faculty member at the University of Michigan Law School and special counsel to the dean for student and graduate activities. She earned her law degree at Northwestern University, where she also went on to teach. She will need to run for election next November if she wishes to complete the last two years of Kelly’s eight-year term.

The court retains a 5-2 majority of Republican nominees. The ACLU called for “full disclosure” about Larsen’s role in crafting post-Sept. “I read about them in the newspapers, just like you did”, she said. The others are Bridget McCormack and Richard Bernstein. Snyder himself graduated from the same law school.

“I also learned a great deal of substantive law”, she said of the clerkships. “She was probably the biggest cheerleader for why I should want to do this job”.