Just three days after Michigan Supreme Court Justice David Viviano announced he will not seek reelection this fall, a contest has already opened up to fill his seat on the GOP side.
In Michigan Democrats and Republicans nominate Supreme Court candidates at party conventions, although their party affiliation is not listed on the general election ballot.
Viviano, 52, is currently among three Republican-nominated justices on the court, along with Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement and Justice Brian Zahra. Democratic-nominated justices, meanwhile, hold the 4-3 majority: Justices Richard Bernstein, Kyra Bolden, Megan Cavanaugh and Elizabeth Welch.
Following Viviano’s late Friday announcement, both state Rep. Andrew Fink (R-Adams Twp.) and Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Mark Boonstra said they each planned to seek the Republican nomination to replace Viviano when his term expires at the end of the year.
Both Fink and Boonstra have demonstrated conservative views, such as in opposition to LGBTQ+ rights.
Fink is the sponsor of House Bill 4075, which was introduced prior to last year’s expansion of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) to include gender identity and sexual orientation. Fink’s bill would limit government action that burdens a person’s exercise of religion, in effect providing a loophole around ELCRA. The bill was sent to the House Government Oversight Committee by majority Democrats, where it remains.
Viviano argued as much in 2022 when he and Zahra dissented in the landmark Rouch World LLC et al v Michigan Department of Civil Rights et al case, saying the ruling “violated constitutional protections of religious liberty” when it prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
In 2022, Boonstra drew the ire of nearly 20 organizations including Equality Michigan, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan and the LGBTQA Section of the Michigan State Bar, when he flatly refused to use a defendant’s preferred pronouns, writing in an opinion that he declined “to join in the insanity that has apparently now reached the courts.” That incident became a catalyst for a rule changes that began this year in Michigan courts preventing judges from purposely misgendering defendants, litigants, attorneys and others having business before the bench.
Viviano was appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court by then-Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican. Viviano subsequently won election in 2014, and then a full eight-year term in 2016. His retirement means there will not be a GOP incumbent in the November election.
Michigan voters will elect two justices in November. Kimberly Thomas, co-founder and director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School, has been running the Democratic side for the slot occupied by Viviano.
Democrats also are slated to choose Bolden to finish out a partial term that ends in 2028. She was appointed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in late November 2022 to fill a vacancy after failing to win a seat outright earlier that month.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX