Former Judge Wade McCree, Jr.

Generally, judges have broad immunity relative to their decisions from the bench.  Judges cannot be sued and held liable for how they decide a case.  Such sweeping immunity is necessary to maintain a fair and impartial judiciary.

This week, the concept of judicial immunity is being put to the test in various courts.  One case involves a disgraced Wayne County trial court judge; the other involves a sitting Michigan Supreme Court Justice.

There are two types of decisions to which judicial immunity applies: decisions in a case on the judge's docket, and administrative decisions made "off the bench", such as hiring or firing personnel.  The former is protected by judicial immunity while the latter is not.

An illustration of judicial immunity is playing out in the civil lawsuit against former Wayne Circuit Judge Wade McCree; he had an affair with a woman who had a custody case in his court and the father is now suing McCree.  The now-disgraced [and married] judge had the bad judgment to preside over the case, when he was secretly involved with the mother of the minor child; the entire family was subject to McCree's jurisdiction in the case.

The case against McCree was tossed out of federal court and appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals which held that, although reprehensible, Judge McCree's conduct nevertheless fell within the scope of judicial immunity.  How far is too far then, if having sex with a litigant in your chambers is still protected?

Although Michigan has no case on record where a judge is held liable for his decision or conduct while on the bench, Tennessee has a rare example of a juvenile court judge held liable for violating the civil rights of three women by sexually assaulting them under the threat that he would take away their children if they did not comply with his demands.  So there you have it; having consensual sex is not sufficient to attach civil liability to the judge, but sexual assault may get a plaintiff some money damages.

Not all of a judge's decisions involve litigants on their docket.  In the case of Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert P. Young, Jr., the former administrator of the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission is suing him in the Wayne County Circuit Court for an allegedly wrongful and retaliatory firing.  The former AGC administrator, Robert Agacinski, reported a series of bizarre staffer emails he discovered to the Attorney Grievance Commission and, he claims, instead of looking into it, the members of the Commission went to the Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court [the High Court is charged with oversight of the Commission] to have Mr. Agacinski, a 14-year veteran of the AGC, very unceremoniously dumped.

Agacinski alleges that Justice Young's decision to terminate his employment violates Michigan law.  For its part, the Michigan Supreme Court merely noted that Agacinski was fired through a court order signed by all seven Supreme Court Justices.

Both the litigant suing former Judge McCree and Mr. Agacinski have hired Detroit lawyer Joel Sklar, who claims in both cases that his clients are merely seeking to hold those in positions of power accountable for their actions.

We shall see how it all turns out for Mr. Sklar's clients.

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Wayne Circuit Judge Wade McCree

By:  Timothy P. Flynn

The Oxford University Press has designated the slang term "selfie" as the word of the year.  For our over-50 readers, a selfie is when a person takes a picture of themself, or a part of themself -usually on their cell phone-  and transmits it to another person.

We here in the 313 can agree that the word has picked-up some credibility thanks to Judge Wade McCree's legal troubles.  How can we forget Charlie LeDuff's piece in Judge McCree's chambers when the good judge was confronted by his embarrassing instantly viral "selfie".

Well, fast-forward 2-years to the oral arguments this week at the Michigan Supreme Court.  The docket included the Judicial Tenure Commission's case against Judge McCree.  The JTC wants McCree to be suspended for six more years  -he is currently suspended without pay for his selfie-  so that he cannot be re-elected when his term expires in 2014.

McCree is represented by State Bar of Michigan President Brian Einhorn.  During Einhorn's oral argument in defense of the judge, Justice Robert P. Young, Jr. made the reference to the judge's "selfie".  The reference was picked-up and amplified by Justice Bridget McCormack.

A judge taking a nude selfie most assuredly does not inspire confidence in the judiciary.  The big question is what will the Michigan Supreme Court do with Judge McCree's case?

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One of our concerns here at the Law Blogger is that the Michigan voting public does not know much, if anything, about the candidates for the Michigan Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Justice Robert P. Young, Jr.'s seat is up for grabs in this election.  This is one of the most important races in this Tuesday's election.

In addition to Justice Young who is trying to remain among Michigan's top jurists, three trial judges are vying for the spot.

The Detroit Free Press has posted interviews with all 4 of the judicial candidates.  The interviews are linked below for the convenient reference of our readers.

This post ties into our post from last week, discussing whether our judges should be elected at all. Presently, our state constitution calls for all judges to be elected on a non-partisan ballot.  Our concern is that voters do not have any idea for whom they are voting when it comes to the non-partisan ballot.

This also was the concern of our fellow Oakland Press blogger and political pundit, Tim Skubick, in his recent post to Skoop's Blog.

Therefore, we thought it would be a good idea to try supplementing the publicity of the Freep interviews of the four Supreme Court candidates.  Please listen to the candidates before you vote on Tuesday.

Judge Denise Langford Morris

Judge Mary Beth Kelly

Judge Alton Davis

Justice Robert Young, Jr.

These links are supplied courtesy of the Michigan Lawyer; the excellent blog of the Michigan Lawyer's Weekly, a law-related newspaper.