News from
THE MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jason Moon
517-371-5410
September 11, 2007

Chief Justice Taylor: “No Judicial Corruption in Michigan”

Small crowd hears Taylor ignore his own ethical problems

LANSING – Today Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer criticized Michigan Supreme Court (MSC) Chief Justice Cliff Taylor after Taylor told a small turnout an Oakland County Bar Association breakfast that “there is no judicial corruption in Michigan.” 

“I’ve got news for Cliff Taylor. When he misuses perks like his taxpayer-funded car, another Republican Supreme Court Justice says he is abusing his power and his Court makes numerous controversial decisions that consistently favor the special interests that support him - that’s corruption,” Brewer said. “Cliff Taylor’s Michigan Supreme Court is an embarrassment and his defeat next year will start to end that embarrassment. “

In January, Republican Justice Elizabeth Weaver issued dissented to Taylor's re-election. She revealed it was only the “tip of the iceberg” of the abuse of power and unprofessional and disorderly conduct by Taylor. 

In April, Taylor admitted using his taxpayer-provided car for personal reasons. Taylor told the Detroit Free Press that he used the 2005 Ford 500 for “… commuting, law school visits, ceremonial functions, and occasional trips to the grocery and for dinners out.  While his vacations don't typically involve a state car, he said, using one ‘would be perfectly permissible.’” The MDP later purchased the car at a public auction after he was forced to give it up due to bad publicity.

Detroit Free Press columnist Brian Dickerson wrote in April, “Have Taylor and his fellow justices been too busy reversing industry unfriendly jury verdicts to notice that none of them has made a car payment since gas was $1.25 a gallon?”

Dickerson also wrote in July, “Cliff Taylor is the chief justice of Michigan's highest court. He's also a zealot operating under a tight deadline, which may explain the reckless haste with which Taylor and other members of the state Supreme Court's Republican majority are laying waste to decades of consumer-friendly legal precedent. Insurers and other deep-pocket defendants who bankrolled the current majority's rise to power could lose their vise-like grip on the court if Taylor fails to win re-election when his term runs out next year. He's the only justice whose seat is at stake in 2008.”

Since Taylor and the current activists took control in 1999, they have overturned 73% of jury verdicts. Injured people or victims of discrimination fared even worse – 90% were reversed, but Taylor’s court upholds 83% of jury verdicts for defendants.

To view the MDP’s flyer on Taylor and his car, visit: http://www.michigandems.com/2007taylor_flier2.pdf

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Paid for by the Michigan Democratic State Central Committee, 606 Townsend St., Lansing, MI  48933. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.