About Justice Weaver

Throughout Justice Elizabeth "Betty" Weaver's over 32 years of experience as a trial and appellate judge (Probate/Juvenile, Court of Appeals, Supreme Court), including 2 years as Chief Justice, she has maintained a proven record based on these major practices:
Exercising Judicial Restraint
Applying Common Sense

A fundamental tenet of her stand for jusitice is to hold wrong-doers accountable and responsible for their actions, while providing opportunities for them to discover and develop their own self-worth and to become law-abiding, productive citizens.

In exercising judicial restraint (interpreting, not making, the law -- judicial self-discipline), Justice Weaver has followed the law as constitutionally passed by the legislature and consistent with the rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court. She has used the responsibility of interpretation, not as a sword to superimpose her own personal views (or those of special interest groups) on the law, but as a shield to protect the constitutional rights of the people and the constitutional acts of the legislative and executive branches.

Click here to read Michigan Court of Appeals Judge, Donald S. Owens’s Remarks as Presenter at the Induction of Justice Weaver into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame on October 25, 2005.

Click here to read Justice Weaver’s Remarks upon her Induction into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.

Press Release - 6/10/2005

Press Release - 1/13/2005

In November 2002, Justice Weaver won re-election for a second 8-year term on the Michigan Supreme Court.
This site provides information about her experience, credentials, principles, and major initiatives for the State of Michigan.

Check this site often for up-to-date press releases and other information about important work going on in the Supreme Court of Michigan.

Justice: No one way to operate a court
Continued

“We’re not trying to lose expertise, we’re trying to work out a system that’s best for a particular area,” she said. “It’s not one-size-fits-all.”

She is proud of having worked to institute restitution to the victim in 1978. That idea seemed radical at the time, she said, and defense attorneys called it cruel punishment to the defendants. But the restitution stayed and is common practice today. Good Morning America featured her in an interview then to discuss this new idea, she said. “I had my make-up done with Joan Lunden.”

The administration portion of the job she described is the least understood by the public, she said. More state residents know the justices for their decisions on appeals of cases from lower courts.

On the bench, she describes herself as a judge. “I’m not a pre-judge,” she said. “I don’t decide a case before it gets to me.”

She said it is the duty of a judge to keep personal opinions out of the system.

She urged the importance of having judges on the bench who use “a great deal of restraint” in their power. “That’s very serious,” she said.

She and fellow justice Robert Young Jr., of Grosse Pointe, both nominated for re-election by the Republican party, are being challenged this November by Rochester attorney J. Martin Brennan and Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Maggie Drake, both nominated by the Democratic party.

In the Nov. 5 election, judges’ names appear on the non-partisan portion of the ballot.

Weaver was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court the first time in 1994 and was reelected in 1998. She served as chief justice for two years.

Prior to her time on the state’s high court, she served on the Michigan Court of Appeals, 3rd District, for eight years. She earned her law degree from Tulane University in 1965. Weaver began her law practice in Louisiana, then in Michigan in 1973. She was elected Leelanau County robate/juvenile judge in November 1974 and served through 1987.

Weaver was appointed to the Michigan Commission on Criminal Justice by Governor William Milliken, to the Michigan Committee on Juvenile Justice by Govs. James Blanchard and John Engler, and to chair the Governor’s Task Force for Children’s Justice and the Trial Court Assessment Commission by Engler.

During her morning in Ludington, she also visited the Mason County Courthouse, spoke to the Mason County Bar Association and the public at a breakfast at Land’s Inn and addressed the Ludington Rotary Club during its noon luncheon.

"What we in the judiciary most need is patience, meekness, compassion, and courage to 'Do Right and Fear Not.'"
Chief Justice Weaver
State of the Judiciary

"She is bringing a fresh, dedicated, incisive mind to the Michigan Supreme Court."
Judge Myron Wahls
Court of Appeals

"I know Betty Weaver. She threw me in jail....But I would vote for her, because she...straightened me out, and the sentence was just."
Former convicted juvenile offender

"Your judicial experience...was outstanding. Your leadership abilities...have been impressive. There is sound reasoning for my full confidence in you as a justice."
Mary S. Coleman
Chief Justice 1978-82

Judge Weaver has been recognized in many ways for her public service, including selection as one of five outstanding young women in Michigan by the Michigan Jaycees. It is a pleasure for myself to recognize Judge Weaver as a capable and devoted public servant.
G. Mennen Williams
Chief Justice 1982-86