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.

INVESTITURE CEREMONY
Continued

I wish you well, Betty, as you ascend the bench of the Michigan Supreme Court. I and the other probate judges wish you well. We will be there if you need us. We look toward great things for you. Thank you.

CHIEF JUSTICE BRICKLEY: I forgot who the leader was, but history teaches us he was in a contest with the Vatican and remarked: How many battalions does the Pope have? Like the Pope, the Court has no army, but one thing a justice has to have is a gavel and a robe. You can’t do without that. I almost passed it over. We cannot go any further without taking care of that chore.

Now, I am going to ask that Stephen Sonke, Randall Taylor, and Karen Weaver come forward for that presentation.

MR. SONKE: I have a few brief comments from the campaign trail. I had the pleasure of working on Betty’s campaign. A couple of people I talked to have stuck with me. One time I was out there, I came across a man operating some heavy machinery, so I walked up to him and asked him who he was going to vote for for the Supreme Court and if he knew Betty WEAVER. He says: Yeah, I know Betty WEAVER. She threw me in jail.

Well, I didn’t expect this conversation to go very far, and I was trying to think of a way out. He quickly followed up with: But I would vote for her, because she helped me out. She straightened me out, and the sentence was just.

A second person I ran into, who was actually a person I talked to fairly often in the course of the campaign, was following all of the campaign workers, not only for the Supreme Court but for all of the other offices. In one of those conversations, she said: Well, Betty certainly deserves to win, because she is the hardest working of all the candidates.

These two comments, and there were many others, point to our campaign slogan, which is: Judge WEAVER, we need her. And we do need her, and thanks to the efforts of all of you out there; and if you think about it, even though we are overflowing into the hallways and into the balcony, that’s not that many. So thanks to a relatively small group of people, Michigan can now receive the blessing of having Betty WEAVER on the Supreme Court.

There are just two other people I would like to briefly mention who are sort of peers of mine on the campaign trail, and I know they would love to be here but they can’t, that’s Wendell LeGardeur and Jamie Coleman, who along with myself shared the responsibility of driving Betty around and, as the previous speaker noted, she was everywhere, while we were the ones approaching the speed limit getting her there in all cases. So I just want to say how pleased that I am, having worked on the campaign, to be able to have our candidate on the Supreme Court.

(continued)

"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