Judging Judges
ROSE AND WEBER OBJECT!
Judging Judges
Shelton for Supreme Court
"NO" on Insurance Proposal C
"YES" for U-M Student Election on Tenant Union Funding
By Jonathan Rose and Jonathan Weber
Citízens: Vote November 8th! U-M students: Vote November 16th and 17th, too! We'llhelpyou tackle those mysteríous judicial races and ballot proposals in this month's column. We will only comment on contested judicial electíons. We start at the top.
Support Shetton & Mallett for Michigan Suprema Court Justice
Our strongest endorsement for any judicial candidate this fall is for Donald Shelton for Supreme Court. As a Washtenaw County Circuit judge, Shelton has been intelligent, fair, and courageous. He has not forgotten or forsaken his working class family roots.
Last year Shelton ruled that General Motors' promise to keep the Willow Run Plant open in exchange for $14 million in tax abatements from Ypsilanti Township was binding. General Motors had to stay and provide the jobs they promised. His decision gave judicial authority to opponents of corporate extortion of tax breaks from communities for promises that the corporations can renege upon while keeping the tax money that they saved. A horrible Michigan Court of Appeals decision reversed Judge Shelton and allowed GM to saunter off to Texas, pockets bulging with local tax dollars.
On three occasions, Shelton declined the U-M administration's attempt to prohibit the annual "Hash Bash." This was an important First Amendment ruling respecting freedom of association, assembly, and speech occurring at Ann Arbor's annual rally around drug legalization. Shelton supported the 1st Amendment over the U's desire to wrap itself in a graffrii-and-rabble-free image for its anti-intellectual alumni who support U-M's military research, football, and souvenirs businesses.
We also support Conrad Mallettf or Supreme Court He is a middle-of-the -road Democrat on most issues but with some race and class consciousness that the other candidates do not possess. You get two votes in the race to join the Supremes. Use them wisely.
Carrier, Markey, Smolenski, and Rynn for Court of Appeals Judge - 3rd District
Most court decisions that make the law that affects us in our local courts come from the Michigan Court of Appeals. Only a tiny percentage of cases get past this level to be ruled upon by the Michigan Supreme Court Governor Engler knows this, so when expansion of the Court of Appeals was called for he threatened to veto the legislation unless he could draw the districts from which the judges would be chosen. Thus Ann Arbor is in the very southeast corner of District 3 which cuts a swath across the state to separate us from our liberal allies in Detroit, and stymie our candidates by putting them up against the largest conservative voting block in Michigan, the Grand Rapids area. No surprise then that the primaries resulted in a plethora of Kent County prosecutors vying for the new seats. You have four votes for contested seats and we've identified the more promising choices.
Meg Hackett Carrier is a bright, ardent feminist, otherwise conservative, but not an ideologue. Jane Markey is the only candidate whose children attend public schools. She has been a social worker and a teacher. Michael Smolenski is a nominal Democrat, a Circuit Judge from Grand Rapids. He is endorsed by the Michigan Education Association, UAW, and AFL-CIO. Michael Flynn is endorsed by Right to Life, but is reputed to be generally liberal, and seems better than Richard Banstra, a protege of far-right U.S. Supreme Court Justice Scalia, Joel Hoekstra who advertises that religion controls his decisions, Forsythe, or Krupp.
Split Decision on Rogers vs. Fink for Circuit Court Judge - 22nd Circuit
This tough cali has engaged us in many hours of debate resulting in a split decision. Both candidates are honest, sincere people.
While Fink personally respects the 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, but feels constrained by bad appellate precedent, Rogers should give better 4th Amendment rulings. Rogers' successful work with the ACLU in overtuming Ypsilanti's classist/racist anti-loitering law is commendable.
Fink, a District Court judge in Ypsilanti, gives polite, honest consideration to tenant issues, is too comfortable with the landlord's inherent power to evict, and gives too-modest rent reductions, but is sensitive to race discrimination.
Fink states a far stronger support for First Amendment freedoms than Rogers. He instinctively and without qualification opposed censorship. Rogers, chair of the Washtenaw County ACLU, abandons time-honored ACLU philosophy and accepts or rejects censorship on a case-by-case basis. This attitude aids the torces of oppression in eroding the 1st Amendment.
Rogers and Fink unhesitatingly and strongly find racism and sexism abhorrent and racist/sexist speech obnoxious, but Fink says he is more concerned with govemment oppression than with the ignorant, hate speech of an individual. We agree, and find this issue timely and critical. We believe in organizing impassioned public censure around hate speech, not the state censor.
Rose: Vote for Rnk. We must resist the temptation to choose issues to censor as if from a smorgasbord. The reason is that there are others, the extreme right included, who would add to the censorship list until there's nothing left on the free speech tray. Will censorship of speech offensive to veterans, lawyers, "the present troops," be next? These issues are on the right's agenda, now. Nice people like Rogers are inadvertently helping the right acelimate the public to censorship.
Weber: Vote for Rogers. While l think Rogers must be tougher and more consistent in her support for the 1st Amendment, I don't believe she is hardened in her views. Judge Fink is a good man, but needs to strengthen his sensitivity to the plight of the politically marginalized. Further, and more importantly, if Fink is promoted to Circuit Judge, Govemor Engler (if reelected) will search for a right-wing replacement. Better to keep Fink as District Judge in Ypsilanti and elect Lore Rogers to Washtenaw County Circuit Court.
Barr Over Widgeon for 14-A District Court
In an important race for those living outside the city limits of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, we give the edge to challenger John Barr over Betty Widgeon. Judge Widgeon is a woman of color and it is very important to have women of color on the bench. But she's a conservative Republican, an Engler appointee, and Engler promotes wealth disparity and reactionary answers to crime without economic justice, a program inherently racist in effect if not design. Such a govemor is likely to appoint a person who nullifies some of the hope we get from having a representative of traditionally oppressed constituencies on the bench.
We have had the advantage of seeing what we'll likely get from Judge Widgeon. Although there may be hope for improvement, pro-landlord biases are apparent in Judge Widgeon's court. In one case, she ordered eviction of an elderty woman of color in a ruling that exaggerated the worst Court of Appeals ruling against retaliatory eviction. In another case, a tenant without a lawyer made a settlement giving up virtually all of her rights. Judge Widgeon accepted the settlement without giving the tenant the mandatory notice of right to attomey.
Her opponent, John Barr, is a mainstream lawyer who embraces the law profession and Bar politics, includtng what is good about lawyer ethics and what is bad about lawyer class consciousness, but more benignly than Judge Widgeon. As Ypsilanti City Attomey, Barr has a balanced sensitivity to rights of criminal defendants, which make us predict a listening earfor tenants' rights.
Absolutely "NO" on State Proposal C
Proposal C would reduce the benefits you can get from insurance in a car accident There is a cap on medical benefits and a narrowed definition of medical benefits. So that's what the insurance industry gets. What do we get? A onetime only, six-month long rate cut. After that the insurance companies can raise their rates back up to, or over, their old rates. We get a permanent cut in benefits for a temporary, and probably illusory cut in rates.
The limit on benefits means that if someone is badly enough injured to exceed the proposed limit on benefits, the taxpayers will foot the bill through Medicaid and other programs. currently, Michigan insurance providers aren't satisfied with the highest profrts of any state in the nation (according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners).
Insurance companies are on a jihad against the civil jury system, which must stay in place if we are to have any recourse against corporate crime and negligence. Junes are fresh in each case and cannot be subtly influenced by the politics around their job, as judges can be. The unpredictability of jury verdicts is a blessing: It makes it harder for manufacturers to assess the costof dangerous products, so they work harder to eliminate the risk.
Insurance companies tried a scheme like Proposal C two years ago, and the people of Michigan saw right through it and voted it down. Do it again, folks. Vote "No" on C.
"NO" on State Proposal B
The proposal to limit appeals of guilty pleas is a bad idea. In some of the cases, the defendant only had five minutes' legal advice before entering a plea, and received a sentence far graver than expectations. Judges can just say "No" on meritless appeals. Say "No" on B.
"YES" to Tenant Union Funding on U-M Student Election Nov. 16-17
The venerable Ann ArborTenants Union has been attacked by U-M administrators who have influenced the arch-conservatives in the Michigan Student Assem bty to erode its funding. A 25-cent student fee would support the Tenants Union which always does its David vs. Goliath fight against landlord abuses for small change.
The Tenants Union won the right to withhold rent for poor repair in Michigan, protections against retaliatory eviction, and for the right to privacy. It is extremely effective in helping individual tenants and, more importantly, has a multiplier effect for all tenants. lts very presence makes landlords fear tenant union rent strikes. Landlords are more respectful of tenant rights when the tenant says "Tenants Union."
Don 't be penny wise and pound fooüsh. Do yourselves a favor, students, and vote Yes for T.U. funding (unless you happen to be a landlord).