MASSIVE Judicial Backlogs

Actually, the word "massive" might not do it, even if it's bold and in all-caps.  If there was ever any doubt about the real intentions of the liberal extremists behind the Reform Michigan Government Now constitutional rewrite the petition's effect on the state's Circuit Courts should put it to rest forever.

You think judicial backlogs are a problem now?  Or have ever been a problem in the past?  You ain't seen nothing yet!  Should RMGN pass, 259 Circuit Court judges may be forced to step down in the span of two months.  

259 judicial vacancies.  259 courts ground to a sudden halt.  So much for that Constitutional guarantee to a speedy trial.  This petition changes everything else... it's a wonder it didn't reach to the national level to try to scrap that too.

We know the petition eliminates two Supreme Court justices using a seniority based system to exclusively target Republicans.  We know the petition eliminates six Republican Court of Appeals judges using an entirely different system (the seniority system wouldn't have targeted this many Republicans in the Appellate Court).  And if blatantly and deliberately packing the courts was the only game the darn thing played with Michigan's justice system that would be bad enough.  Unfortunately, it's not.

Under RMGN members of the Circuit Court would face an immediate fifteen percent pay cut.  (Remember, under the plan the tens of thousands of bureaucrats and government employees do not receive ANY pay cut.)  For members of the Circuit Court who began serving prior to 1997 their retirement package is based on the salary they earned during their last years in office.

In other words, the longest tenured (read: oldest) members of the Court, those closest to retirement, are strongly incentivized to step down from the bench prior to January 1st, 2010.  All at once.

I mentioned court packing and that's an issue here too... Jennifer Granholm would appoint a new liberal judge to every vacanct seat.  Potentially hundreds of them.  But that's the least of our worries.  With as many as 259 Circuit Court vacancies created by this extremist scheme the petition becomes scarier than ever.