On and Off the Court

On and Off The CourtIn 2006, the Coleman Intern was assigned the task of creating an account of each justice’s elevation to and departure from the Michigan Supreme Court. The result of this project is the “On and Off the Court” Project:

To view information about justices listed in chronological order, click here.

“On and Off the Court” is a spreadsheet style display of categorical information, with all of the Michigan Supreme Court justices listed in chronological order and aspects of his or her elevation to and departure from the bench listed in the columns that follow. The data is divided into chronological sections based on major changes to the organization of the Court. It is easy to read, concise, and extremely practical. It includes the following categories:

  • Justice
  • Start Date
  • End Date
  • Length of Service
  • Elected or Appointed
  • Election/Appointment Details
  • Replaced
  • Previous Positions
  • Reason for Leaving
  • Political Party Affiliation Before Joining the Court

Admittedly, the “On and Off the Court” project is a collection of facts, which, although useful, can sometimes be impersonal. They rarely tell the whole story, and many of the basic facts contained in the “On and Off the Court” project act as insufficient proxies for stories worth telling. For this reason, we have provided short summaries of some of the particularly interesting stories of ascension to or departure from the Court.

These summaries include: