By Cynthia Price
Legal News
It has been a long time since anyone from the western side of the state has served on the Michigan Supreme Court.
James Robert Redford, currently a 17th Circuit Court judge, would like to remedy that geographical imbalance. When introduced as an audience
member at the recent Grand Rapids Bar Association Litigation Section judicial candidate panel, Judge Redford responded to people’s inquiries about just how long it had been, “Since 1946.” That is when the term of Raymond Starr, who practiced in Grand Rapids before becoming a justice, ended.
If Judge Redford succeeds, he will break the long streak of east-sideronly justices in the 2014 elections. First, however, he has to gain the nomination of the Republican Party when its convention meets in Novi this August. Michigan follows a somewhat perplexing procedure for Supreme Court elections, in that the ballot and campaigns are not partisan, but under most circumstances, candidates are nominated by a party.
The Secretary of State guidance on the process for nomination reads: “A candidate who wishes to seek the office of Supreme Court Justice can gain access to the ballot by receiving nomination to the office at the Republican Party convention, the Democratic Party convention or a minor party convention... Within one business day after the conduct of the nominating convention, the party officials must submit a Certificate of Nomination to document the individual’s nomination to the office, an Affidavit of Identity... and an Affidavit of Constitutional Qualification...”
It is also possible to be placed on the ballot by submitting a petition with over 30,000 signatures, and incumbent justices need only file the Affidavit of Candidacy and Affidavit of Identity to appear.
There are three seats open, but Justices David Viviano and Brian Zahra have filed for two of them. The only qualifications are that candidates must be “a registered and qualified elector of the State of Michigan...; licensed to practice law in the State of Michigan; and less than 70 years of age on November 4, 2014... [A]s of January 1, 2013, the individual must have been admitted to the practice of law for at least 5 years.”
Judge Redford says that, under G.O.P. rules, he was also required to file with the party by April, which he did, originally in February. So far as he knows, no one else did, but he still says only that he is “cautiously optimistic” about getting the nomination.
He will be running for the seat left open by the retirement of Justice Michael Cavanagh, who is unable to run due to turning 70 before the elections. If he is nominated, Redford is also optimistic about his chances of winning, largely due to his “depth and breadth of experience.”
Though he has spent the last eleven years of his career as circuit court judge, his prior experience includes private practice — with Plunkett and Cooney in Grand Rapids, where he did civil and criminal litigation as well as had a transactional general corporate and health care business practice — and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney General.
From 1990 to 1998, Redford was in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of Michigan, where he covered all levels of cases including grand jury investigations, indictments, pre-trial motions, trial, sentencing and appeals. He served as Health Care Fraud Coordinator, and briefly, at the end of his term, as Financial Institutions Fraud Coordinator. He has served in many community and professional capacities, including chairing the Committee on Model Civil Jury Instructions, to which the Supreme Court appointed him, and being a member on both the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts of America local boards.
Judge Redford was in the U.S. Navy from 1984 to 2012, starting out in active duty and then moving to the reserves. During that time, spent in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps, Redford was a Staff Judge Advocate around the U.S. and the world, including in Sicily; a military judge; and Legal and Legislative Affairs Counsel in the Office of the Vice Chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon. He received the Legion of Merit and many other commendations and medals over his career.
Going back even further, Judge Redford says he owes part of his temperament and actions to the way he was raised in Detroit.
“I come from a family background where hard work and respect for everybody is the coin of the realm,” he says. “My folks communicated to us that service to your community, service to your nation, service to your church is a fundamental part of being a whole person.”
Though the family was not poor, young Redford had to work in order to make his way in the world, starting when he was 12 years old as a caddy. “Then I was a teamster at Detroit Coca-Cola. I learned about the dignity of labor, and that we are a state, and a land, of unlimited opportunity. I took that ability to work, doing whatever was necessary, to pay for college — my folks helped as much as they could,” he adds.
After receiving a B.S. in Business Administration from John Carroll University — “a small Jesuit college,” he calls it — Redford graduated from University of Detroit School of Law, after spending a summer with the London England International Law Program at University of Notre Dame London Law Center.
He and his six siblings wound up with many differing points of view, so much so that he says, “People look at us and say, ‘You just could not have
come from the same family.’” He regards this as real-life training for a career as a judge.
Regarding his judicial philosophy, Judge Redford comments, “I consider myself a rule of law judge. I’m committed to equal justice under the law, and I have a firm and abiding respect for the separation of powers and responsibilities. As far as statutory authority, I think the judiciary should apply them as commonly and ordinarily understood, and help provide predictability in people’s relationships.
What the rule of law means to me is that whether you’re in Grand Rapids or Grand Ledge, Muskegon or Iron Mountain or Monroe or Manistique,
in the courts you’re going to get the same results, essentially.”
Judge Redford says he has carefully considered his run for the office, which came about as a result of being asked to run by others. He is devoted
to his family, but his three children are now well-launched on their lives and he sees this as a good time to continue his passion for serving.
“It’s just such a privilege to even be considered,” he says with all sincerity. “When I think about it — Jim Redford is potentially going to be nominated to run for the Michigan Supreme Court – I can’t get over it. I think, ‘Are you kidding? I know that guy, that’s me!' "
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