Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Bridget McCormack to retire this year
(CBS DETROIT) — Bridget McCormack, chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, said Monday she will retire by the end of the year.
McCormack, who was nominated by the Democratic Party, was reelected to an eight-year term in 2020. She's been on the court since 2013. She is the ninth woman to join the high court and the sixth woman to serve as chief justice.
According to a press release, McCormack notified Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of her plans for retirement and will step down no later than Dec. 31, but not before Nov. 22.
"A decade can be a common measuring point for personal and professional change. Over the last 10 years, my kids grew up and went off to college and graduate school, we bought a pickup truck and an RV, and I have had the honor of serving as Chief Justice for the past four years," McCormack said in a statement.
"Making good on a campaign promise I made in 2012, I have given my every effort to do justice and to make the Michigan judiciary as fair and accessible as possible. After a decade, the time has come for me to move on, to let others lead, and to build on a foundation of progress."
Election victories by McCormack and Justice Elizabeth Welch put Democrats in the court's majority, 4-3, for the first time since 2010.
Before her election in 2012, McCormack was co-director of the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school, working with students to exonerate wrongly convicted people.
In a statement, Whitmer called McCormack "a phenomenal public servant."
"In her tenure on the Michigan Supreme Court, she upheld the rule of law, stood strong for our constitutional values, and protected the fundamental rights of every Michigander. She worked tirelessly, both on and off the bench, to move our state courts forward and ensure that all Michiganders, no matter their background, means, or circumstance, had equal access to our justice system," she said.
Whitmer says she will appoint a new justice in the coming months.
