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Bridget Mary McCormack
Bridget Mary McCormack (Democratic Party) was a judge of the Michigan Supreme Court. She assumed office in 2013. She left office on November 30, 2022.
McCormack (Nonpartisan, Democratic Party) ran for re-election for judge of the Michigan Supreme Court. McCormack won in the general election on November 3, 2020. She advanced from the Democratic convention on August 29, 2020.
McCormack completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
In 2019, she was elected by her peers to serve a two-year term as chief justice.[1]
McCormack was one of seven candidates competing for two seats on the Michigan Supreme Court in the nonpartisan election on November 6, 2012.[2][3] Though the race was nonpartisan, she was nominated at the Democratic Party convention.[4] 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.[5] McCormack received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[6] Click here to read more about this study.
McCormack retired on November 30, 2022. To learn more about this vacancy, click here.
Biography
McCormack received her J.D. from New York University Law School.[7] Prior to her election to the Michigan Supreme Court, McCormack was a law professor and dean at the University of Michigan Law School. While an associate dean, McCormack co-founded the law school's Innocence Clinic. She was a faculty fellow at Yale Law School. She also worked as an attorney with the Legal Aid Society and the Office of the Appellate Defender in New York.[7]
Elections
2020
See also: Michigan Supreme Court elections, 2020
General election
General election for Michigan Supreme Court (2 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for Michigan Supreme Court on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | Bridget Mary McCormack (Nonpartisan) ![]() | 32.3 | 2,377,410 |
✔ | ![]() | Elizabeth Welch (Nonpartisan) ![]() | 20.2 | 1,490,550 |
![]() | Mary Kelly (Nonpartisan) | 17.0 | 1,252,692 | |
![]() | Brock Swartzle (Nonpartisan) | 13.7 | 1,009,320 | |
![]() | Susan L. Hubbard (Nonpartisan) ![]() | 8.3 | 611,019 | |
![]() | Kerry Lee Morgan (Nonpartisan) ![]() | 4.6 | 340,396 | |
![]() | Katie Nepton (Nonpartisan) | 3.9 | 290,377 |
Total votes: 7,371,764 | ||||
![]() | ||||
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 Bridget Mary McCormack and Elizabeth Welch advanced from the Democratic convention for Michigan Supreme Court on August 29, 2020.
Candidate | ||
✔ | ![]() | Bridget Mary McCormack (D) ![]() |
✔ | ![]() | Elizabeth Welch (D) ![]() |
![]() | ||||
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Republican convention
Republican convention for Michigan Supreme Court (2 seats)
Mary Kelly and Brock Swartzle advanced from the Republican convention for Michigan Supreme Court on August 29, 2020.
Candidate | ||
✔ | ![]() | Mary Kelly (R) |
✔ | ![]() | Brock Swartzle (R) |
![]() | ||||
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. | ||||
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Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for Michigan Supreme Court (2 seats)
Kerry Lee Morgan and Katie Nepton advanced from the Libertarian convention for Michigan Supreme Court on July 18, 2020.
Candidate | ||
✔ | ![]() | Kerry Lee Morgan (L) ![]() |
✔ | ![]() | Katie Nepton (L) |
![]() | ||||
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2012
- See also: Michigan judicial elections, 2012
McCormack was one of seven candidates competing for two seats on the Michigan Supreme Court in the general election on November 6, 2012. She won 23.59 percent of the vote in the general election, securing herself a seat on the court.[8][9] Though the race was nonpartisan, she was nominated by the Democratic Party at their convention.[10]
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.
- The Macomb Daily. To read the endorsement, see: The Macomb Daily, "Editorial: Preferred judicial candidates favor a nonpartisan court," October 28, 2012.
- Women Lawyers Association of Michigan[11]
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Bridget Mary McCormack completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by McCormack's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
Collapse all
|- Courts must be independent from political pressure.
- The courts belong to the people; they must be accessible to all, treat people with dignity and respect and be transparent.
- Courthouses must dramatically increase innovation and technology to meet the access to justice challenge and make sure people can get their business done efficiently.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Analysis
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.[12]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[13]
- 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.
Bridget Mary
McCormack
Michigan
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- Was a registered Democrat as of 2020
- Received donations from Democrat-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
McCormack donated $5,680 to Democratic candidates and organizations. She was a registered Democrat prior to 2020. McCormack received donations from organizations that regularly donate to Democratic candidates, including the Michigan Education Association. She was endorsed by individuals and organizations that regularly endorse Democrats, including Fems for Dems, the Michigan AFL-CIO, the Michigan Association for Justice, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan. At the time of her appointment, Michigan was a Republican trifecta.
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
Footnotes
- ↑ WLNS, "State Supreme Court makes history with Chief Justice selection," January 9, 2019
- ↑ Michigan Department of State, "Official 2012 General Election Results: Supreme Court," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ Michigan Department of State, "2012 General Election Candidates," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ The News-Herald, "Democrats eye three seats on Michigan Supreme Court," October 2, 2012
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Michigan Courts, "Justice Bridget Mary McCormack," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ Michigan Department of State, "Official 2012 General Election Results: Supreme Court," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ Michigan Department of State, "2012 General Election Candidates," accessed June 24, 2021
- ↑ The News-Herald, "Democrats eye three seats on Michigan Supreme Court," October 2, 2012
- ↑ Women Lawyers Association of Michigan, "Press Release: WLAM Endorses, Rates Judicial Candidates"
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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
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