Your feedback ensures we stay focused on the facts that matter to you most—take our survey.
Megan Cavanagh
2019 - Present
2027
6
Megan Cavanagh (Democratic Party) is a judge of the Michigan Supreme Court. She assumed office on January 1, 2019. Her current term ends on January 1, 2027.
Cavanagh (Democratic Party) ran for election for judge of the Michigan Supreme Court. She won in the general election on November 6, 2018.
Cavanagh first became a member of the Michigan Supreme Court through nonpartisan election. She was first elected to the court in 2018. To read more about judicial selection in Michigan, click here.
On April 15, 2025, the court elected Cavanagh as Chief Justice.[1]
The Michigan Supreme Court is officially nonpartisan, but candidates were nominated to the ballot by party convention. Cavanagh was nominated by the Democratic Party in 2018.[2]
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.[3] Cavanagh received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Cavanagh obtained an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan College of Engineering and a J.D. from Wayne State University Law School.[5] Before her election to the court, Cavanagh had previously worked as an attorney with Garan Lucow Miller PC in Detroit, Michigan.[5]
Elections
2018
- See also: Michigan Supreme Court elections, 2018
Although the general election was officially nonpartisan, candidates were nominated to the ballot by party convention. Party affiliation listed below refers to the party that nominated each candidate.
General election
General election for Michigan Supreme Court (2 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for Michigan Supreme Court on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Elizabeth Clement (R) | 29.9 | 1,871,462 |
| ✔ |  | Megan Cavanagh (D) | 25.3 | 1,584,512 |
 | Kurtis Wilder (R) | 24.3 | 1,519,394 | |
 | Samuel Bagenstos (D) | 11.5 | 717,062 | |
 | Kerry Lee Morgan (L) | 5.8 | 360,858 | |
 | Doug Dern (Natural Law Party) | 3.3 | 209,103 | |
| Total votes: 6,262,391 | |||
 = 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. | ||||
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.[6]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[7]
- 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.
Megan
Cavanagh
Michigan
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Democrat before 2020
- Donated less than $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- Received donations from Democrat-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
Cavanagh was a registered Democrat prior to 2020. She donated $1,340 to Democratic candidates and organizations. Cavanagh received donations from organizations that regularly donate to Democratic candidates, including the Michigan Democratic Party. She was endorsed by individuals and organizations that regularly endorse Democrats, including Fems for Dems, the Michigan AFL-CIO, and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan.
Other Scores:
In a 2012 study of campaign contributions, Cavanagh received a campaign finance score of -0.75, indicating a liberal ideological leaning.
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.[8] 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.[9]
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.[9]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the court is elected by his or her fellow justices and serves a two-year term[9]
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.[9]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Michigan Advance, "Cavanagh now officially Michigan’s chief justice after Clement departs," April 17, 2025
- ↑ mlive.com, "6 compete for 2 seats on Michigan Supreme Court," October 16, 2018
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ann Arbor Votes, "Megan Cavanagh," 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.
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Michigan," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 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 |
| ||||||||||
