By Ben Solis
Staff Writer
Posted: January 23, 2023 9:15 AM

Throughout her career, Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement has endeavored to keep an open mind, to listen first and talk later and to hear every voice at the table before making a consequential decision.

And, as she takes the reins of the state's judiciary as the high court's newly elected chief justice, the same mantra remains at the heart of her work: to better the lives of those who interact with the courts – particularly in the mode of juvenile justice, elder abuse and data sharing.

It also allows the newly elected chief to further exhibit her reputation as an eagerly independent jurist and a reliable swing vote that is always ready to buck her party's minority to side with its majority Democrats, and often vice versa, depending on the legal challenge and arguments presented.

In a wide-ranging interview with Gongwer News Service, Ms. Clement detailed the moments that kept her motivated to serve on the state's highest court, her views on the partisan nature of judicial nominations in election years and why it was important to maintain collegiality on the bench even after a rocky start to the latest term – one that saw two of the bench's Democrats have a public spat over the hiring of a clerk with a criminal history.

Ms. Clement has come to be known as the high court's most reliable wildcard, but she also said that her penchant for fierce independence was neither for show nor a sign of philosophical inconsistency, saying instead that it was at the core of why she got into public service.

"I think I have a reputation from when I was in the Legislature and when I was working in the executive branch of being open minded and being a listener more than a talker. Someone that wanted all of the information, wanted to hear every voice, and take all of that in and make really thoughtful decisions and recommendations," Ms. Clement said. "And I brought that experience with me to the court starting day one as a justice. … I had never been a judge before, but I think the experience that I had prior to that really made it a transition that that felt natural. At bottom, the role of the judiciary is to be independent."

The new chief justice was tapped to fill in as chief justice during the end of former Justice Bridget McCormack's tenure after the latter announced her retirement in November 2022. Last week, with the installation of Ms. McCormack's immediate successor, Whitmer-appointed Justice Kyra Harris Bolden, the new bench voted unanimously again to elect Ms. Clement as its leader.

She will now hold the post for the entirety of the current two-year term.

The selection is significant because Ms. Clement is a GOP-nominated justice, who was first appointed to the bench by Republican former Governor Rick Snyder, and the Supreme Court has a 4-3 majority of justices nominated by Democrats.

Justice Richard Bernstein, the bench's ranking Democrat, in a previous interview with Gongwer, noted Ms. Clement's independence as a key factor for his vote but also her previous work in the other two branches.

That, too, is a strength Ms. Clement said she possesses that will guide her as chief justice. She served in various capacities as a Republican legislative staffer before becoming the chief counsel to former Republican Governor Rick Snyder, who later appointed her to the bench before she won election to an eight-year term in 2018.

"I think when it comes to being the chief, I think that experience really brings something to the table that I'm excited about," she said. "I know how the other two branches of government work, having extensive experience in them, and also having five years on the court, seeing how our court interacts with those other branches."

That experience will undoubtedly be useful as the judiciary furthers its goals in data sharing, expanding reforms and enhancements to the juvenile justice system and efforts in elder abuse – all things Ms. Clement has championed during her time on the bench.

She credits much of that effort to work of Ms. McCormack, however she was part of the group that developed recommendations for juvenile justice reforms and has worked in child welfare for the better part of her career.

A major focus for the judiciary will be to implement its data sharing goals by creating a statewide data repository of pretrial data to better inform judges and prosecutors and assist defendants as they face decisions on bond or pre-trial incarceration (See Gongwer Michigan Report, February 9, 2022 and Gongwer Michigan Report, November 12, 2021).

With money in the 2023-24 budget to make that a reality, or at the very least implement its first steps, Ms. Clement said the judiciary was "incredibly fortunate to have the support of the governor and the legislature to create a statewide case management system, which is really going to be transformative."

"It's a huge appropriation that we received. It's one of the things that we're working on day in and day out to get implemented. The goal is to make the courts more understandable and user friendly to all of the individuals that use the court system and to expand our educational and other resources so that so that the public is able to access and conduct business successfully, whether they're in person or virtually. That's one of the things that is at the at the very top of our list."

Ms. Clement said the judiciary is still at the preliminary stages of identifying the systems that work and the best approach to either growing or overhauling the current system.

"Once that decision is made of how we're going to move forward, it is it is going to be a multi-year project," she said. "I'll say that I don't know that we have an end date in mind of when we can say we have a statewide system that is usable to all of the users of that system. But I can tell you, with the appropriation that we got and with the team that we have in place, this being one of our very top priorities, we're putting an extreme amount of resources behind getting that up and running as quickly as we can, because it's so important."

Those issues with data extend to the juvenile justice system, and that too is a priority for Ms. Clement.

Ms. McCormack was, by and large, one of the biggest supporters of the project. She had a knack for getting stragglers on board with something that could mean massive change in the way that the court inputs offender data and disseminates it across the state. Asked if any of the support has faltered with Ms. McCormack's departure, Ms. Clement said she wasn't seeing any regression.

"I've got a very strong relationship with those various stakeholders in the system. And I think that they know my approach and me taking up the priorities of the court. These are not just my priorities because these are priorities that have been expressed by the Supreme Court," she said. "That's not to say that there may be judges or court staff or other partners in the system that maybe want to want to see us do things differently or may not be supportive of some of these efforts. But I'm not hearing that there's that there's been a shift since Bridget has stepped down as chief and is no longer with the court."

When Ms. McCormack spoke to Gongwer in her final interview last month, she said she gave little to no advice to Ms. Clement because she didn't need it, adding that she was eminently capable, equipped and ready to take on the role.

One thing that seems to be common between the two – aside from their close personal relationship and reverence for judicial independence – is their view that collegiality and public trust are what keep the court relevant and viable as an arbiter of law, a backstop for constitutional rights and a check on the other branches.

Collegiality appears to be a major focus for Ms. Clement. The commitment will be even more important as the Clement court got caught in a snag last week when Mr. Bernstein publicly lambasted Ms. Bolden's choice of a clerk in the press, leading to that clerk's resignation. It is unclear whether the two have fully moved on outside of statements to Gongwer that show they've moved on – at least professionally – from the situation (See Gongwer Michigan Report, January 6, 2023 and Gongwer Michigan Report, January 5, 2023).

Although she had to put out a few fires within her first week, Ms. Clement said she was committed to keeping the court's streak of collegiality going. Despite that bump in the road, she said she didn't believe that the Supreme Court, nor its lower state and local courts, were affected or influenced by the same kind of blind partisanship sometimes seen on the national stage with the federal courts.

"I have read and seen things that do cause me concern, whether it's actual or whether its perception, or in outside pressure trying to bring politics into the judiciary. I definitely can see that on the national and federal level. I do not see that in our state courts," she said. "I work with my colleagues on the Court of Appeals, and our in our trial courts, and these are dedicated jurists that that are going to work every day and understand that the people that are before them, this is their day in court. And I truly believe – and I am sure there may be an exception that someone can raise – but when I look at the judiciary as a whole and I look at my colleagues, I do not see partisan politics or politics in general in play in in the judicial branch."

That said, Ms. Clement has had a particular distaste for party politics even before she joined the high court bench and even though she was a partisan actor as the chief counsel to Ms. Snyder.

Although she was appointed by the former Republican governor, Ms. Clement found herself in hot water with MIGOP delegates and activists when she was one of five justices who ruled that a ballot proposal changing the state's redistricting process could go before voters.

That measure eventually passed in 2018 and created the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. The body's mission was to create fairer maps than the state had before by virtue of the process not being handled by the Legislature, but its work was mostly derided by Republicans who saw it as creating an advantage for the state's Democrats.

The Democratic Party went on to gain a narrow majority in both the state House and Senate during the 2022 elections, the first year the new maps were in play.

Rewind to 2018, when Ms. Clement faced enormous pressure from outside Republican activist groups to rule against the proposal, which Ms. Clement labeled then as bullying and did not cave. That led to her being removed from election door hangers in certain targeted areas, with the hangers instead carrying information on the MIGOP's other judicial candidates. She also received boos and jeers at the party's nominating convention that year.

In retrospect, Ms. Clement said the process of the parties nominating candidates for Supreme Court justice and the Court of Appeals was flawed.

"I thought this before I went through it, but it was demonstrated to me in my experience. I think it's an unfair system for the public to have to have your highest court nominated by a political party and then, immediately after that nomination, that that nominee becomes a candidate that is on the nonpartisan section of the ballot," she said. "I have had conversations and thoughts what the what the better way is, but I'm not going to say the 'right way' because I don't know that there's a perfect solution to this."

The Court of Appeals candidates run on the nonpartisan primary ballot. Nonincumbents must collect sufficient signatures from registered voters to gain ballot access. Incumbents can simply file an affidavit of candidacy.

Despite the 2018 anger among some Republicans, Ms. Clement was the top vote-getter among the justice candidates, proving her abilities as a strong candidate and as a justice the people wanted returned to the bench.

"What that told me is that, because of my experience and because the media took an interest in what was going on with my campaign, I think people were informed and I think people said, 'We do not want justices that are connected or beholden to partisan politics," Ms. Clement added. "We want justices that make independent decisions based on how they read the law and leaving any of those other relationships or connections or past experiences out of that decision making. And I think the fact that I was successful in that election really speaks volumes of the people of the state of Michigan that saw through that."