by Gongwer News Service
July 10, 2009

Within the quiet of a two-week legislative break, a break soon to give way to expected renewed concentration and contentiousness over resolution of the 2009–10 budget, one thing lifted its head to remind the world it is alive: the drive to defeat Supreme Court Justice Robert Young Jr.

Flush from the success of leading the defeat of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Clifford Taylor, Michigan Democratic Chair Mark Brewer has stuck Mr. Young’s head on the 2010 electoral dart board.

It also points out that given the surprising win over Mr. Taylor, it may not be as easy to defeat Mr. Young in 2010.

Go to the Michigan Democratic Party’s website and you’ll see a link posted in horror-movie poster style (think everything from the Black Cat to Eraserhead) with a photo of Mr. Young, a vacant blank stare from his glasses. He is listed as an “enemy of the people” at that site.

Click on the link and a document citing Mr. Young as an enemy of “workers and consumers” is shown, listing his role in controversial decisions and citing him as a former insurance company lawyer.

And according to this week’s attack by state Democrats, Mr. Young is specifically an enemy to motherhood.

The latest criticism was launched after Mr. Young wrote a dissent to the Supreme Court’s failure to hear an appeal in a medical malpractice case that dealt with how to determine if specific services count as economic or non-economic. If they are considered economic, then there is no limit on how much a plaintiff can be awarded; if considered non-economic, state law sets strict limits on how much can be awarded.

The specific case was Thorn v. Mercy Medical Center and stemmed from the death of a young mother during a Caesarean delivery. The Court of Appeals ruled that the activities of child care that the plaintiffs argued for were, in fact, economically-based and awarded the plaintiffs $1.4 million.

How to measure a mother’s love and caring? Who would want to tackle such a solomonic task? Yet, here it was laid out in an appeal to the Supreme Court, and a four-member majority declined to hear the case.

Mr. Young wrote the dissent, which was signed as well by Justices Maura Corrigan and Stephen Markman, saying the court should hear the case. Now, the dissent does not disparage the child-care activities listed by the plaintiffs, though at one point it makes the caustic comment that trying to sort out economic and non-economic damages from the consortium provided in a marriage would be a “fool’s errand.”

What worried the minority the most is the idea that by not hearing the case, the majority had effectively gutted the state’s non-economic standards by letting the Appeals decision stand.

In the Brewer comments, however, the party chair said Young’s action was an insult not only to mothers but to all parents, and harkens back to the day when “women’s work” was devalued.

Tying Mr. Young to Attorney General Mike Cox (presumably a veiled reference to the extramarital affair he admitted to) and to South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (for whatever type of hiking he engages in), Mr. Brewer said the state can’t afford politicians who claim their belief in family values and then deride them by their actions.

The Democrats are getting an early start trying to unseat Mr. Young because it may not be as easy defeating him as it was Mr. Taylor. Democrats got a tremendous break in the 2008 election when Republican presidential candidate John McCain pulled his activities out of the state with roughly a month to go. Freed from having to fight for Barack Obama, the party could put its top focus on defeating Mr. Taylor with extra money and campaign effort. Republicans had been confident of a relatively easy win in that seat and were simply unprepared to fight back against what they charged were campaign lies.

That election past, there is no chance Republicans will not work as hard as possible in the 2010 election to win the governor’s race along with other statewide races. And keeping Mr. Young (and possibly electing a different Republican than Justice Elizabeth Weaver) will be atop those priorities.

So expect the Democrats to take every opportunity they can to go after Mr. Young over the next 16 months.

For nearly 50 years in Michigan, Gongwer News Service has provided independent, comprehensive, accurate and timely coverage of issues in and around Michigan’s government and political systems. For subscription information, including a free trial, visit Gongwer online.