Your feedback ensures we stay focused on the facts that matter to you most—take our survey.
Brian Zahra
2011 - Present
2031
14
Brian Zahra (Republican Party) is a judge of the Michigan Supreme Court. He assumed office in 2011. His current term ends on January 1, 2031.
Zahra (Nonpartisan, Republican Party) ran for re-election for judge of the Michigan Supreme Court. Zahra won in the general election on November 8, 2022. He advanced from the Republican convention on August 27, 2022.
Zahra was appointed by Governor Rick Snyder (R) to fill the vacancy left Justice Maura Corrigan in 2011.[1][2][3]He was subsequently elected to the court in a nonpartisan election in 2012. To read more about judicial selection in Michigan, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[4] Zahra received a confidence score of Strong Republican.[5] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Zahra received an undergraduate degree from Wayne State University in 1984 and his J.D. degree from the University of Detroit Law School in 1987.[2][1] Before serving on the Michigan Supreme Court, he was a judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals from 1998 to 2011 and on the 3rd Circuit Court, Michigan from 1994 to 1998. Prior to his time as a judge, he was an attorney with Dickinson, Wright, Moon, Van Dusen & Freeman and clerked for Judge Zatkoff of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.[2][1] He is a past officer of the Federalist Society and a former board member and officer of the Catholic Lawyers Society.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Michigan Supreme Court elections, 2022
General election
General election for Michigan Supreme Court (2 seats)
Incumbent Richard Bernstein and incumbent Brian Zahra defeated Kyra Harris Bolden, Paul Hudson, and Kerry Lee Morgan in the general election for Michigan Supreme Court on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Richard Bernstein (Nonpartisan) | 33.9 | 2,120,661 |
| ✔ |  | Brian Zahra (Nonpartisan) | 23.9 | 1,493,317 |
 | Kyra Harris Bolden (Nonpartisan)  | 21.9 | 1,368,652 | |
 | Paul Hudson (Nonpartisan) | 13.3 | 834,436 | |
 | Kerry Lee Morgan (Nonpartisan) | 7.0 | 438,595 | |
| Total votes: 6,255,661 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic convention
Democratic convention for Michigan Supreme Court (2 seats)
Incumbent Richard Bernstein and Kyra Harris Bolden advanced from the Democratic convention for Michigan Supreme Court on August 21, 2022.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Richard Bernstein (D) |
| ✔ | | Kyra Harris Bolden (D) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican convention
Republican convention for Michigan Supreme Court (2 seats)
Incumbent Brian Zahra and Paul Hudson advanced from the Republican convention for Michigan Supreme Court on August 27, 2022.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Brian Zahra (R) |
| ✔ | | Paul Hudson (R) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for Michigan Supreme Court (2 seats)
Kerry Lee Morgan advanced from the Libertarian convention for Michigan Supreme Court on July 10, 2022.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Kerry Lee Morgan (L) |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
2014
- See also: Michigan judicial elections, 2014
Zahra ran for re-election to the Michigan Supreme Court. He faced James Robert Redford, Richard Bernstein, William B. Murphy, and Doug Dern in the general election on November 4, 2014, and won with 32.2 percent of the vote. Candidates competed for two open seats. Zahra was nominated as a candidate at the Republican convention.[3]
2012
- See also: Michigan judicial elections, 2012
Zahra ran for election to the Michigan Supreme Court. Though Michigan judicial elections are nonpartisan, Zahra was nominated as a candidate at the Republican convention.[6] He defeated Mindy Barry and Shelia Johnson in the general election on November 6, winning 49.54 percent of the vote.[7][8]
Endorsements
- Detroit Free Press. To read the endorsement, see: Detroit Free Press, "Detroit Free Press Endorsement: Zahra, Kelley, McCormack for Michigan Supreme Court," October 7, 2012.
- Michigan Chamber of Commerce.[9]
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Brian Zahra did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[10]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[11]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Brian
Zahra
Michigan
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Was a registered Republican before 2020
- Received donations from Republican-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
Zahra donated $9,075 to Republican candidates and organizations. He also donated $250 to a Democratic candidate. Zahra was a registered Republican prior to 2020. He received donations from organizations that regularly donate to Republican candidates, including the Michigan Republican Party. Zahra was appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder (R). He was endorsed by individuals and organizations that regularly endorse Republicans, including the National Federation of Independent Business and the Police Officers Association of Michigan. At the time of his appointment, Michigan was a Republican trifecta.
Other Scores:
In a 2012 study of campaign contributions, Zahra received a campaign finance score of 0.53, indicating a conservative ideological leaning.
Bonica and Woodruff campaign finance scores (2012)
In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan ideology of state supreme court justices. They created a scoring system in which a score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology, while scores below 0 were more liberal.
Zahra received a campaign finance score of 0.53, indicating a conservative ideological leaning. This was more conservative than the average score of 0.05 that justices received in Michigan.
The study was based on data from campaign contributions by the judges themselves, the partisan leaning of those who contributed to the judges' campaigns, or, in the absence of elections, the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice, but an academic summary of various relevant factors.[12]
Noteworthy cases
Court rejects public-sector benefits for same-sex partnerships (2007)
In Kalamazoo, Michigan, public-sector employees were eligible for same-sex partnership medical insurance benefits. The unanimous ruling by Judges Kurtis Wilder, Joel Hoekstra, and Brian Zahra struck down an earlier ruling by an Ingham County court judge in a case brought by National Pride at Work Inc. against the city of Kalamazoo on the basis of a 2004 constitutional amendment in Michigan that prevented the state from recognizing same-sex partnerships or marriages. The court ruled "the marriage amendment's plain language prohibits public employers from recognizing same-sex unions for any purpose."[13]
State supreme court judicial selection in Michigan
- See also: Judicial selection in Michigan
The seven justices of the Michigan Supreme Court are chosen by the Michigan method in which a partisan nomination is followed by nonpartisan elections.[14] Incumbent judges seeking re-election may file an affidavit of candidacy requesting to be placed on the ballot, while non-incumbent candidates must either file a nominating petition or obtain a partisan nomination at a party convention. Incumbency is noted on the ballot, though party affiliation is not. Judges serve eight-year terms and must be re-elected if they wish to remain on the court.[15]
Qualifications
To be elected to the supreme court, a judge must:
- be a qualified elector;
- be licensed to practice law in the state;
- have at least five years of law practice experience;
- be under the age of 70.[15]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is elected by his or her fellow justices and serves a two-year term[15]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a temporary replacement to serve until the next general election. At the governor's request, the state bar's standing committee on judicial qualifications interviews, evaluates, and rates all candidates, submitting a confidential report to the governor. However, the governor is not required to request candidates from the committee, nor is the governor bound by the committee's evaluations.[15]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Candidate Michigan Supreme Court |
Officeholder Michigan Supreme Court |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Michigan Courts, "Justice Brian K. Zahra," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Michigan Courts, "Zahra named Chief Pro Tem of Court of Appeals," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Michigan Department of State, "2014 Unofficial Michigan General Candidate Listing," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ mlive.com, "Michigan GOP adds Judge Colleen O'Brien to Supreme Court ballot, ousts state Board of Education member Nancy Danhof," September 8, 2012
- ↑ Michigan Department of State, "Unofficial Results: Justice of the Supreme Court - Partial Term," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ Michigan Department of State, "2012 General Election Candidates," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ VoteSmart, "Brian Zahra's Political Summary," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ Stanford University, "State Supreme Court Ideology and 'New Style' Judicial Campaigns," October 31, 2012
- ↑ Court Listener, "NAT'L PRIDE AT WORK, INC. v. Governor of Michigan, 732 N.W.2d 139 (Mich. Ct. App. 2007)," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Michigan," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection," accessed August 27, 2021
Federal courts:
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Michigan, Western District of Michigan • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Michigan, Western District of Michigan
State courts:
Michigan Supreme Court • Michigan Court of Appeals • Michigan Circuit Court • Michigan Court of Claims • Michigan District Courts • Michigan Municipal Courts • Michigan Probate Courts
State resources:
Courts in Michigan • Michigan judicial elections • Judicial selection in Michigan
| ||||||||||
 |
State of Michigan Lansing (capital) |
|---|---|
| Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
| Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |
