CLICK TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH JUDGE BROCK SWARTZLE
There are seven people running for two seats on the Michigan Supreme Court.
The current Chief Justice…Bridget McCormack, supported by Democrats…is running for re-election. And Stephen Markman…supported by Republicans…is retiring. So those are the two seats in next week’s election.
One of the candidates, Appeals Court Judge Brock Swartzle, did a wide-ranging interview with the Radio Results Network. He says that campaigning is different now because of the coronavirus. Swartzle says they were planning to hold events in Marquette and Escanaba, but decided against it due to restrictions on gathering sizes.
“I didn’t want to put people in an uncomfortable situation,” he said. “So, we just decided that it would be better to make phone calls and doing Zoom meetings and that kind of thing.”
Swartzle is campaggning for a seat on a court which has come into the spotlight this fall after it threw out Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive orders in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Michigan Supreme Court Justices are on the nonpartisan portion of the ballot, but the two political parties list their preferences. The Republicans are supporting Swartzle and Mary Kelly.
Whitmer, and other top Democrats, have made it clear that they support McCormack’s re-election, and Elizabeth Welch. If the two women are elected, then Democrats would have a 4-3 majority on the court.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reimposed Whitmer’s restrictions shortly after the Supreme Court declared them unconstitutional, including mask mandates and business rules, at Whitmer’s direction. But are these rules legal?
“I don’t know,” Swartzle said. “I want to be careful because judges can’t answer every question, especially about a dispute that’s likely going to result in litigation. I presume there’s going to be some lawsuits over this. I know there was one that was filed in the Grand Rapids area. So I can’t answer that.”
In general, he says that administrative rules do carry the force of law.
“Agencies and departments have to follow the Administrative Procedures Act. They can be challenged, and they are challenged often in our courts,” Swartzle said. “There are challenges to admininistrative orders all the time and those are fairly routine. We’ll just have to see if these challenges fall under that same framework.”
In this case, Swartzle says it is a balancing act between your personal freedoms, and public health concerns.
“Obviously, we live in a free country,” Swartzle said. “That freedom of movement, that freedom of choice, needs to have paramount respect. With that said, sometimes we find ourselves in times where public health emergencies require that we act in a certain way.”
Swartzle is being supported by Republicans, and he says he wants to fill Markman’s seat moreso than trying to unseat McCormack. He says his philosophy is that judges are there to interpret the law, rather than issuing rulings that make new law.
Besides Swartzle, Kelly, McCormack, and Welch, there are three other candidates on the ballot: Susan Hubbard, Kerry Morgan, and Katherine Nepton.
Comments