Michigan Chief Justice McCormack to retire

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Monday afternoon, Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack notified Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a letter of her plans to retire. Her retirement from the bench will come no later than December 31, 2022, but not before November 22.

When she was sworn in as an Associate Justice on January 1, 2013, Chief Justice McCormack became the 108th Justice and the ninth woman to join the Court. She has served as Chief Justice since January 2019, only the sixth woman to do so. She was nominated to the bench by the Democratic Party.

In 2020, McCormack was reelected to an eight-year term. Election victories by McCormack and Justice Elizabeth Welch put Democrats in the court’s majority for the first time since 2010.

McCormack also worked at the University of Michigan law school, helping wrongly convicted people win exonerations.

As Michigan governors choose new justices when someone resigns, Gov. Whitmer will get to name a replacement for McCormack’s place on the bench through 2024. An election will then be held to determine who will finish the last four years of her term.

In a letter to her colleagues and Court staff, she wrote:

“A decade can be a common measuring point for personal and professional change. Over the last 10 years, my kids grew up and went off to college and graduate school, we bought a pickup truck and an RV, and I have had the honor of serving as Chief Justice for the past four years. Making good on a campaign promise I made in 2012, I have given my every effort to do justice and to make the Michigan judiciary as fair and accessible as possible. After a decade, the time has come for me to move on, to let others lead, and to build on a foundation of progress.”

Chief Justice McCormack has yet to make an announcement regarding her future. Chief justices typically serve two, 2-year terms.

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