Tag: Court of Appeals

The Patriot Act is a classic example of such a law.  And I do find myself chuckling just a little when an Amber Alert mentions a missing 14-year-old girl, last seen headed out of town with a 19-year-old man . . . yeah, you know what's probably really happening.  Also on this list are the various elements of sex offender registration.  Between Megan's Law, the Wetterling Act, and the Adam Walsh Act we have I don't know how many different ways to permanently screw up other people's lives over nothing, for no other reason than because we as a society lack the testicular fortitude to deal with bona fide sex offenders according to their crime.

An example in my mind is a high school kid here in Kentwood a couple of years back who streaked across the football field during the final home game of the season . . . not even out of high school, and an overreactive law has already thrown out the rest of his productive life.  (Back in my day, the only LEO involvement in such an incident would be to escort the student in question home and turn him over to the parents for disciplinary action.)  I mean seriously, in Michigan you can land on the sex offender registry for nothing more offensive than cussing in public, which is a real concern for a career sailor such as myself.

And then there are other shortfalls.

The debate over the O'Brien vs. Markey race for the third GOP Supreme Court nomination has, for the most part, been respectful.  Oh sure, there are the usual hysterics because 20 years ago someone bought a ticket to a colleague's fundraiser, but these are minor and safely ignored.  I like to think of the pro-Markey crowd as best represented by Kevin Rex Heine, who at least does his homework.  [Someday, I'd like to meet Kevin and shake his hand.]  That doesn't mean I agree with him, however.  In fact, the more I study Markey's decisions, the more uncomfortable I am with the thought of her on the high court.

"I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left."

By this measure, an e-mail that's been circulating to the convention delegation for about three days now must have Judge Jane Markey on cloud nine.  Two weeks before convention, and her opponent has already effectively admitted that she's going to have to go personal to beat her.  If that's the case, then Markey's already got this one in the bag.

Here is the new district map.

The fake Tea Party has filed an application for leave to appeal with the Michigan Supreme Court, asking that court to overturn the Michigan Court of Appeals, a panel of which voted unanimously that the FTP should not be on the November ballot. With the much publicized departure of E. Weaver and the elevation of Alton Davis, this will be the first rule-of-law test for the newly constituted Supreme Court.

I recently received an anonymous email criticizing Bill Schuette for certain decisions on the Court of Appeals. The email was so ludicrously awful, I almost deleted it immediately, but then I thought again -- it's an election year, and people who aren't familiar with the law might accept this as some sort of authority. Hence, we set the record straight here, by reposting my emailed response:

I join with Joan Fabiano in condemning this ridiculous attack on Bill Schuette. While everyone has a right to his or her opinion, no one has a right to be wrong on the facts. The anonymous person who attacked Judge Schuette for decisions in three cases involving criminal sentencings clearly does not understand the law or criminal procedure. These decisions show that Judge Schuette understands and applies the law as it is written. Moreover, the anonymous sender completely mischaracterizes the decisions themselves.