by Tom Kirvan
Legal News
In legal terms, he was just a lad at the time, only a few years removed from law school and sporting barely three years of experience as an assistant prosecuting attorney in the topsy-turvy world of Genesee County.
“I had hair down to my shoulders, no money, and no name recognition,” he says, acknowledging that he was facing the ultimate in long odds when eyeing his first attempt at elective office.
To add to the challenge, George Steeh III took on an incumbent in the Washtenaw County Prosecutor race, and a popular incumbent at that.
“I was young, idealistic, and probably should have known better, but I was confident that I could win,” Steeh admits of the 1976 race against Republican William Delhey.
And win he nearly did, coming up shy by a mere few thousand votes in a county-wide race that figured to be nothing short of a coronation for Delhey, a wily and highly regarded prosecutor who gained fame as the “Silver Fox” in the successful 1970 prosecution of John Norman Collins in the slaying of an Eastern Michigan coed.
His zeal for politics would be rewarded in 1986 when he won a seat on the Macomb County Board of Commissioners, a stepping stone that would pave the way for him to claim a spot on the district court bench two years later. By 1990, he had been appointed to fill a vacancy on the Macomb County Circuit Court, a post he held for eight years until his appointment to the U.S. District Court, the first Arab American to serve on the Eastern District of Michigan bench.
The Steeh name was widely known in state legal circles long before his ascension to the federal bench. Steeh’s father, George, made certain of that during a distinguished legal career that included years of private practice, eight years as a senator in the Michigan Legislature, and a long stint as a district court judge.
“In my father, I have had a magnificent role model throughout my legal career,” Judge Steeh says of the family patriarch, now 93 and a resident of Mount Clemens. “He set a tremendous standard and I have tried to follow his decision-making approach both in private practice and as a judge. He has been a great teacher and I can only hope that I have been an equally good learner.”
Now 66 and transitioning to senior status as a federal judge, Steeh is the second of five children. His mother, Barbara, died at age 49, but not before leaving an indelible mark on her family.
“She had an incredible work ethic and was devoted to so many charitable endeavors and good causes,” Steeh says of his mother. “She served as president of the school board, sang in the church choir, volunteered for various children’s aid and human services agencies, and raised five kids. She had endless energy. She set the tone for us as a family.”
Born in Ann Arbor, Steeh grew up in Mount Clemens, and was named captain of the high school football team his senior year. At 180 pounds, Steeh played offensive guard as well as cornerback for his high school. His childhood dreams of playing at U-M were derailed by two undeniable facts: “I wasn’t big enough and I wasn’t good enough,” he says. “Other than that, I had all that it takes.”
He certainly had the academic smarts to make it at U-M, earning both bachelor and law degrees at Ann Arbor.
“Most everyone assumed that I was going to law school, but... [m]y decision to attend law school was not a foregone conclusion and had a lot to do with whether I was likely to be drafted for the Vietnam War,” Steeh says, noting that his lottery number (347 out of 365) virtually assured that he would not see military service.
His first job out of law school was as an assistant prosecutor in Genesee County. He worked for Prosecutor Robert Leonard, a one-time rising legal star who fell from grace in 1979 when he was convicted of embezzlement.
“That job taught me a lot, not only as a trial attorney and as an assistant prosecutor, but also about the scope of politics and the importance of upholding the public trust,” Steeh says.
By all accounts, Steeh proved to be a quick study once on the bench, displaying a keen sense of understanding and fairness that would be tested during a particularly troublesome Macomb County murder case in which a student from a local high school was kicked to death by four teens from Sterling Heights in a tragic 1991 altercation.
“It was a high profile case that attracted a lot of media attention because of the severity of the beating that they inflicted on the victim,” Steeh recalls. “Each defendant had to be tried separately and there was a tremendous public outcry for the most severe sentences possible... I couldn’t let the heat of the moment tip the scale when it came [to] sentencing. I had to factor in the extent of each defendant’s involvement. It was a ‘Lord of the Flies’... mentality for the four defendants convicted.”
In July 2010, Judge Steeh was back in the spotlight when he ruled in favor of Eastern Michigan University in a lawsuit filed by Julea Ward, a former student, who claimed that EMU discriminated against her based on her religion and violated her constitutional rights to free expression, due process, and equal protection, stemming from Ward’s expulsion from a master’s program in counseling after she declined to counsel a gay client due to her Christian faith. The University settled the case for $75,000 after Steeh’s decision had been appealed.
“It... attracted national attention, as religious groups and those supporting gay and lesbian causes saw it as a case with potentially wide-ranging implications,” Steeh said.
The Detroit judge also presided over a nearly three-year case that pitted computer giant IBM against software developer Compuware, in which Compuware alleged copyright infringement and antitrust law abuses by IBM.
“IBM responded to Compuware’s initial claims by filing several countersuits...,” Steeh related. “The case involved great lawyering on both sides” — to such a degree that when the two companies eventually reached a $400 million settlement, it came at the cost of some $300 million in combined attorney fees, according to Steeh.
The stakes have been even higher in an ongoing case before Judge Steeh in which a number of Japanese companies have been fined for their involvement in a price-fixing and bid-rigging scandal. Over the last year, Steeh has imposed nearly a billion dollars in criminal fines, the largest amount recovered to date by the Antitrust Division in such matters.
But he case earning the greatest national attention among Steeh's decisions was his October 2010 opinion upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Health Care Act. Because his was the first decision on the issue, an avalanche of commentary followed. Steeh's decision was affirmed by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2011, and ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the outcome in its landmark decision in July of 2012.
“For a while I got great reviews by The New York Times and was public enemy number one on Fox News,” Steeh said. “Fortunately, news cycles pass very fast and I was quickly replaced by others for media attention.”
Steeh has a history of community and charitable involvement that “brings balance” to his legal responsibilities, including serving on the Macomb County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, the Child Advocacy Center of Macomb County, and the Arab American Bar Association.
“The value of volunteer work has been ingrained in me from an early age,” said Steeh, who has a 37-year-old daughter, Laura. . “My parents were great role models in that regard, always finding time to help others.”
He could say the same for District Court colleagues, Judges Avern Cohn and Bernard Friedman, who took Steeh under their wings when he joined the federal bench.
Steeh commented, “They have been great mentors, and I will always be grateful for their help and guidance.”
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