Longevity

Justice Charles Levin at the Society’s Annual Luncheon on April 14, 2016.

Happiest of birthdays today to Justice Charles Levin!

Justice Levin was born on this date in 1926, making him 90 years old today.

Longevity characterized his time on the Michigan Supreme Court, too.

He served on the Michigan Supreme Court from 1973 through 1996, and is one of the ten longest-serving justices in Michigan Supreme Court history.

Since 2000, Justice Levin has served on the Board of Directors of the Society. He resigned this year and has been succeeded on the Board by former Justice Mary Beth Kelly.

To read more about Justice Levin’s career and to see his official portrait, visit his biography here.

Read the transcript of his investiture ceremony here / portrait dedication here

Listen to Justice Levin’s oral history interview here

Luncheon Recap

The Society’s Annual Luncheon is now… OVER! We hope you had a chance to make it out to the Detroit Athletic Club last Thursday to hear Justice Joan Larsen and State Bar of Michigan President Lori Buiteweg. Nearly 175 of you did, anyway. It was a record-breaking crowd! To learn more about it, read the Grand Rapids Legal News’ recap here.

Join or renew your membership TODAY to ensure you receive an invitation to our next event!

#AnnualLuncheon

Invitations to this year’s Annual Luncheon, to be held at noon on Thursday, April 14 at the Detroit Athletic Club, have just gone in the mail to Society members.

The topic for this year’s event is titled: “On Michigan Supreme Court Visionaries, or @LoriBuiteweg on @MiSupremeCt #Drivingchange and #Sbmfuturelaw” with “Memories of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Scalia” by Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen.

Register online for this year’s Luncheon. We hope to see you there!

Exploring Careers in the Law

Did you know that the Michigan Supreme Court Learning Center hosts a moot court program every summer for high school students? If your son or daughter is interested in a future career in the law, this program is a can’t miss! To learn more, download the application here.

Foundations of Justice

The property of a former Michigan Supreme Court Justice is in the news — 126 years after his departure from the bench.

The official portrait of Justice Edward Cahill and a portion of the foundation of his former home, known as the Scott Sunken Gardens, in Lansing.

Justice Edward Cahill had one of the shortest terms on the Michigan Supreme Court; however, he succeeded Justice James V. Campbell, who was the longest-serving justice and one of the “Big Four.” Cahill served from April 1890 through the end of that year. After his electoral defeat, Cahill went into private practice with future justice Russell Ostrander.

What makes Justice Cahill newsworthy today has to do with property where his home once stood. In 1930, the new owners of the property demolished Cahill’s home to build a much larger one. Upon the foundation of Cahill’s former home, they built a sunken garden, which has been maintained by a private garden club over the decades.

To see more of the gardens, visit Preservation Lansing. They are quite a treat to see on a cold, blustery day in February when the State of Michigan is closing due to a winter storm.

Death on the Court

The death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia over the weekend prompted me to review Michigan’s history of justices who have passed away while still in service to the Court.

In the early part of the last century, there was an unprecedented string of deaths of sitting Michigan Supreme Court justices. Beginning with Justice Frank Hooker’s death in 1911, ten justices died from 1911-1929. In fact, half of the justices who were sitting on the Court in 1905 would go on to die while in service to the Court. Besides Hooker, this list includes Justices Charles Austin Blair, Aaron McAlvay, and Russell Ostrander.

Of the justices who died at the end of this period, four — Ernest Snow, John Bird, Richard Flannigan, and Grant Fellows — died in the three year period of 1927-1929. Coincidentally, today is the anniversary of the day that Justice Flannigan died, and his memorial notes the unusual circumstances of these many deaths.

The last person to die as a sitting justice of the Michigan Supreme Court was Justice Blair Moody Jr. on November 26, 1982. The appointment of Moody’s successor by Governor Milliken would later be contested by incoming Governor James Blanchard, resulting in the ouster of Justice Dorothy Comstock Riley after two months and one week on the Court.

Michigan’s connections to the current Supreme Court don’t end there. Jack Lessenberry has proposed that the President appoint Michigan Supreme Court Justice Bridget McCormack to the vacancy created by Justice Scalia’s death; click here to listen. If it were to happen, Justice McCormack would be the third person from Michigan to ascend to the U.S. Supreme Court following Justices Henry B. Brown (1891-1906) and Frank Murphy (1940-1949).

Bird’s Top Hat

On this date in 1928, Justice John E. Bird passed away unexpectedly at his home in Adrian, Michigan. It was another four months before the beaver felt top hat he had ordered would arrive at Mifflin’s Department Store in Lansing. Last spring, the Society acquired this hat and the box it came in.

To read more about Justice Bird’s career, visit his biography here and memorial/portrait dedication here.

Learn more about the history of the top hat here.

And to see a literal “bird in a top hat” visit this Etsy shop here.

G. Mennen Williams

On this date in 1988, the New York Times published the obituary of G. Mennen Williams. The former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice had passed away the day before.

Williams served as Governor of Michigan from 1949-1960. He was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1970.

While Governor of Michigan in 1954, Williams appeared on an episode of the popular game show What’s My Line?

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You can read his biography here.

Investiture here.

Portrait dedication here.

Black Birthday

On this date in 1903 Justice Eugene Black was born in Marine City, Michigan. Black graduated from Port Huron High School and studied law briefly at the Detroit College of Law and later the University of Michigan Law School. His legal education was primarily undertaken in the office of a former circuit court judge, and Black is notable as one of the last justices of the Michigan Supreme Court to have “read the law.”

To learn more about Justice Eugene Black and view his official portrait, visit his biography here. You can read the transcript of his portrait dedication here.

Justice Black died on August 4, 1990. His obituary can be found here.

Moody Blues

Peter Moody stands beneath the portrait of his father, Justice Blair Moody, Jr., on Wednesday, January 20. Mr. Moody was at the Hall of Justice for a seminar.

Peter Moody was only 17 years old when his father, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Blair Moody, Jr., passed away unexpectedly. Mr. Moody is now a father and attorney who aspires to live with as much energy and dedication as his father before him.

Justice Blair Moody, Jr. was born in Detroit on February 27, 1928, but grew up in Washington D.C. His father, for whom he was named, was the Washington bureau chief for the Detroit News and later a U.S. Senator, appointed by Governor G. Mennen Williams. Justice Moody studied at the University of Michigan and worked as a reporter for the Detroit News and Washington Post during the summers. He married Mary Lou Kennedy and the couple had five children: Diane, Blair, Susan, Brian, and Peter. As a father, Justice Moody coached his children’s teams and was involved in all of their activities.

 
To learn more about Justice Moody’s career, please visit the following links:

• Biography
• Investiture
• Portrait Dedication