LANSING, Mich. — State Rep. Kyra Harris Bolden, whose great-grandfather was lynched in Tennessee in the 1930s, will become the first Black woman to serve on the Michigan Supreme Court after being appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Whitmer announced her selection of Bolden during a Tuesday press conference inside the Supreme Court's Hall of Justice building in downtown Lansing.
The Democratic governor said Bolden, a Southfield Democrat who's 34 years old and a new mom, will bring a unique perspective that has been left out of the court's decision-making for too long. But some Republicans criticized the appointee for having inadequate legal experience for Michigan's highest court.
At one moment during Tuesday's event, Bolden addressed her 3-month-old daughter and the historic nature of her appointment to the state's highest court.
"Emerson, in just a few generations, our family has gone from lynching to law school, from injustice to capital 'J' justice," Bolden said. "This is the brightness and possibility of our country."
After the end of the year, Bolden will succeed Justice Bridget Mary McCormack, who revealed in September her plans to leave the court to become CEO of the New York-based American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution. McCormack is a Democratic nominee, and Democrats maintained a 4-3 majority on the court in this month's election.
Bolden will be the youngest member of the Michigan Supreme Court and could hold a seat for more than three decades as justices can seek reelection until they reach the age of 70.
"Kyra is committed to fighting for justice for generations, and I know she will serve Michigan admirably, building a brighter future for her newborn daughter and all our kids," Whitmer said.
Bolden was a Democratic nominee for two seats on the Michigan Supreme Court in the Nov. 8 election. But she finished narrowly behind Republican-nominated Justice Brian Zahra for the second seat.
Zahra won 24%, while Bolden finished third with 22% of the vote. Democrat-nominated incumbent Justice Richard Bernstein finished in first place with 34%.
For much of the campaign, Bolden ran for office while pregnant, giving birth to her daughter in August.
First elected to the state House in 2018, she is a member of the House judiciary and insurance committees.
During a speech on the House floor in November 2021 against a proposal to ban Michigan's K-12 education curriculum from featuring the promotion of "race or gender stereotyping," Bolden shared the story of her great-grandfather, Jesse Lee Bond.
Bolden said her great-grandfather was shot, castrated, dragged behind a truck and thrown in a river in the 1930s. His death certificate said he accidentally drowned, she said.
"Things like this happened," Bolden said in November 2021. "It happened to my family. Slavery happened. Lynching happened. Red-lining happened. Government-sanctioned violence based on race happened.
"I, too, would like to stick my head in the sand and pretend it didn't, but I can't because it happened to my family and many other families in this nation."
Bolden will be sworn into office as a justice Jan. 1 after her term as a state representative ends, Supreme Court spokesman John Nevin said Tuesday.
Bolden becomes the sixth African American appointed to the high court.
Otis Smith was the Michigan Supreme Court's first Black justice, appointed by Democratic Gov. John Swainson in 1961.
Democratic Gov. James Blanchard appointed Dennis Archer in 1985, who resigned and later successfully ran for Detroit mayor, and Conrad Mallett Jr. in 1990, who resigned nine years later. Republican Gov. John Engler in 1999 appointed as Mallett's replacement Robert Young Jr., who served on the court until his retirement in April 2017. GOP Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Court of Appeals Judge Kurtis Wilder as Young's replacement, but Wilder lost his election bid in November 2018.
Before serving in the House, Bolden was a lawyer with Lewis & Munday P.C. in Detroit and worked as a staff attorney and clerk for Wayne County Circuit Judge John A. Murphy and as a court-appointed criminal defense attorney for district court in Southfield, her hometown. Bolden has a law degree from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
Some Republicans criticized Whitmer's selection of Bolden.
Fred Wszolek, a GOP political consultant, tweeted that Bolden had "the thinnest resume of a Supreme Court justice ever."
But Whitmer said her office completed a "rigorous process" before selecting Bolden.
Bolden has not previously served as a judge, though there's no legal requirement that Supreme Court justices have prior service in the judicial branch. The state's 1963 constitution requires Supreme Court justices to be a registered voter, under age 70 and licensed to practice law in Michigan.
Bolden has been a licensed attorney in Michigan since December 2014, according to the State Bar of Michigan.
Chief Justice Bridget McCormack, center, is stepping down from the Michigan Supreme Court at year's end to take a job in the private sector. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, second from right, on Tuesday appointed state Rep. Kyra Harris Bolden, far left, to succeed McCormack. Bolden, McCormack and Whitmer were joined at a Tuesday press conference in Lansing with newly elected Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement, second from left, and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, far right.
McCormack, whom Bolden is succeeding on the bench, was elected to the high court in 2012 without any prior judicial experience. She was a University of Michigan law professor.
Justice Elizabeth Clement, who was elected chief justice on Monday, also had never been a judge prior to former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder appointing her to fill a vacancy in November 2017. Clement worked for Snyder for six years, including more than a year as his chief legal counsel, and previously worked as a legal counsel in the state Senate.
Bolden will be the youngest justice on the Supreme Court since Theodore Souris in 1960 and the first former lawmaker to sit on the state's highest bench since Lawrence Lindemer left the court in 1977, according to the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Reference Guide.
"I think it's a great thing to have people sitting on our Supreme Court who weren't necessarily judges prior to their appointment and who have experience in the Legislature," said Mark Brewer, an election lawyer who was Bolden's campaign attorney.
Both McCormack and Clement attended Tuesday's press conference with Bolden and Whitmer.
The court is getting a "smart, savvy and hardworking public servant," McCormack said of Bolden.
Asked how Whitmer expects Bolden to handle policy issues that come before the court that she voted on as a lawmaker, the governor said she wants any appointee to have "true fidelity to the law," be honest and work hard.
Clement, who was one of Snyder's lawyers prior to her appointment to the high court, has recused herself from some cases because of her prior role.
Bolden will serve a partial term expiring at noon on Jan. 1, 2025. If she wishes to complete the remainder of McCormack’s term, which expires on Jan. 1, 2029, Bolden will be required to run for the seat in the November 2024 general election.
“Kyra has always been ready to meet the moment and being the first Black woman on Michigan’s top court is no different," said state Sen. Marshall Bullock, a Detroit Democrat and chair of the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus.
Whitmer’s appointment of Bolden to the Michigan Supreme Court marked a significant and consequential moment in the history of the state, said John Johnson Jr., executive director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.
"As the first Black woman to serve in that capacity, she will bring a long-missing perspective to the deliberations of the state’s highest court," Johnson said in a statement. "That alone makes this a monumental decision, but Ms. Bolden brings more to the table than her racial identity."
Bolden's experience as a criminal defense lawyer and her leadership on public policy will inform her decisions, Johnson said.
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