MI Supreme Court set to lean even more progressive after Whitmer appointment
Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s appointment of Michigan Supreme Court Justice-designate Noah Hood might have been more consequential if it flipped the high court’s majority, but that’s not the case. Rather, it takes the court from a majority of Democratic Party-affiliated justices to a 6-1 super-duper majority.
Ostensibly non-partisan, the political makeup of the court has mattered in recent significant decisions to allow a 2022 reproductive rights proposal and a 2018 congressional and legislative redistricting proposal to go on the Michigan ballot. And just this past summer the court struck down a Republican ‘adopt-and-amend’ scheme to fiddle with earned sick leave and minimum wage initiatives.
Republican Justice Brian Zahra, whose seat is up for reelection in 2030, is the court’s lone conservative – with a history on the state Supreme Court and the Michigan Court of Appeals of ruling against LGBTQ and abortion rights.
University of Michigan law professor Richard Primus says he’s not sure how much the new 6-1 majority will change the court since recently retired Republican-nominated Justice Elizabeth Clement was very independent. (So independent, in fact, she endorsed Kamala Harris for president in 2024 and left the state Supreme Court in time for a Democratic governor to name her replacement.)
https://www.michiganpublic.org/politics-government/2025-04-25/mi-supreme-court-set-to-lean-even-more-progressive-after-whitmer-appointment