Michigan Supreme Court adopts new recusal rule

The Michigan Supreme Court recently adopted a disqualification rule for judges. The rule is a redrafted version of Proposal C (starting on page 4) from options that were published on March 8.

The new version has not been made public yet, but drafter Justice Diane Hathaway said her draft addresses Caperton v. Massey.

In Caperton v. Massey, the Supreme Court decided that elected justices must recuse themselves from cases where campaign contributions to a judge create the perception of bias.

According to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, Chief Justice Kelly said it was time for the Supreme Court to act on disqualification, or recusal, rules after a 2008 report of the ABA Standing Committee on Judicial Independence on disqualification was released.

Video of the hearing is available at www.michbar.org/courts/virtualcourt.cfm.