Judges appointed by Rick Snyder

	Judicial selection in Michigan
	Michigan Supreme Court
Method:	Michigan method
Term:	8 years
	Michigan Court of Appeals
Method:	Nonpartisan election of judges
Term:	6 years
	Michigan Circuit Courts
Method:	Nonpartisan election of judges
Term:	6 years
	Michigan District Courts
Method:	Nonpartisan election of judges
Term:	6 years
	Michigan Probate Courts
Method:	Nonpartisan election of judges
Term:	6 years

	Judicial Appointments
	Governor Rick Snyder
	Other Governors

	State Executive Offices
	Governor • Lt. Governor • Secretary of State • Attorney General • Treasurer • Auditor • Superintendent of Schools • Insurance Commissioner • Controller • Agriculture Commissioner • Natural Resources Commissioner • Labor Commissioner • Public Service Commissioner • State Board of Equalization • Public Utilities Commissioner • Industrial Commission Director • State Mine Inspector • Department of Revenue Commissioner • Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection • Chief Financial Officer • Director of the Department of Economic Opportunity • Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs • State Examiner • Governor's Council • Transportation Commission • Executive Director of Employment Security • Commissioner of Management and Budget • Tax Commissioner • Board of Elections
	Elections by Year
	2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017; 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011

This page lists judges appointed by Rick Snyder (R) during his term as governor of Michigan. At the end of his term in January 2019, the total number of Snyder appointees was 102. For a more extensive profile, visit Snyder's page here.

Ballotpedia provides comprehensive coverage of the 100 largest cities in America by population. Some Michigan judges are outside of that coverage scope. As a result, this page does not provide an exhaustive list of all judges appointed by Gov. Snyder.

Appointment process[edit]

In Michigan, the governor makes an appointment following a confidential report isssued by the committee on judicial qualifications of the State Bar of Michigan. The appointed judge must run for election to the seat in the next general election.^[1]

Appointed judges

The tables below list the governor's appointees to the courts across the state.

State Courts

Supreme Court

Name	Court	Active
Elizabeth Clement	Michigan Supreme Court	2017 -
Brian Zahra	Michigan Supreme Court	2011 -
Kurtis Wilder	Michigan Supreme Court	2019-01-01
David Viviano	Michigan Supreme Court	2013 -

Court of Appeals

Name	Court	Active
Anica Letica	Michigan 1st District Court of Appeals	2018 -
Michael Riordan	Michigan 1st District Court of Appeals	2012 -
Thomas Cameron	Michigan 1st District Court of Appeals	2017 -
Colleen O'Brien	Michigan 2nd District Court of Appeals	2015 -
Jonathan Tukel	Michigan 2nd District Court of Appeals	2017 - 2021-09-17
Mark Boonstra	Michigan 3rd District Court of Appeals	2012 -
James Robert Redford	Michigan 3rd District Court of Appeals	2018 -
Brock Swartzle	Michigan 4th District Court of Appeals	2017 -
Michael Gadola	Michigan 4th District Court of Appeals	2015-01-05 -

Local Courts

Name	Court	Active
John Keuvelaar	Bay County Probate Court
Brian Berger	Berrien County Probate Court
Arthur Cotter	Berrien County Trial Court
Jennifer Smith	Berrien County Trial Court	2018 -
Gordon Hosbein	Berrien County Trial Court	2018 -
Valerie Snyder	Charlevoix-Emmet County Probate Court
Gerald Scott Pierangeli	Kalamazoo County Probate Court
T.J. Ackert	Kent County Probate Court
Dan Hass	Menominee County Probate Court
Paul Beardslee	Michigan 10th District Court
James D. Norlander	Michigan 10th District Court
Daniel Goostrey	Michigan 12th District Court
Kevin Elsenheimer	Michigan 13th Circuit Court
Kathy Hoogstra	Michigan 14th Circuit Court
Karen Valvo	Michigan 15th District Court
Jennifer Faunce	Michigan 16th Circuit Court
Joseph Toia	Michigan 16th Circuit Court
James M. Biernat Jr.	Michigan 16th Circuit Court
George J. Quist	Michigan 17th Circuit Court
Krista Haroutunian	Michigan 17th District Court	2018 -
Sabrina Johnson	Michigan 22nd District Court
Robert Springstead	Michigan 27th Circuit Court
Alexis Krot	Michigan 31st District Court
Michael Pope	Michigan 32nd Circuit Court
Robert Bennett	Michigan 34th Circuit Court
Jeffrey Dufon	Michigan 36th Circuit Court
Kathleen M. Brickley	Michigan 36th Circuit Court
Aliyah Sabree	Michigan 36th District Court
Demetria Brue	Michigan 36th District Court	2012 -
Christopher M. Blount	Michigan 36th District Court	2022-04-17
Adrienne Hinnant-Johnson	Michigan 36th District Court
David Perkins	Michigan 36th District Court	2018
Larry Williams	Michigan 36th District Court	2016 -
Michael E. Wagner	Michigan 36th District Court
Shannon A. Holmes	Michigan 36th District Court
Brian Kirkham	Michigan 37th Circuit Court
John A. Hallacy	Michigan 37th Circuit Court
Michael Chupa	Michigan 37th District Court
Dean Ausilio	Michigan 37th District Court
Daniel S. White	Michigan 38th Circuit Court
Mark Braunlich	Michigan 38th Circuit Court
Anna Marie Anzalone	Michigan 39th Circuit Court
Prentis Edwards Jr.	Michigan 3rd Circuit Court
Adel Harb	Michigan 3rd Circuit Court
Qiana Lillard	Michigan 3rd Circuit Court
Alexis Glendening	Michigan 3rd Circuit Court	2014 -
Martha Snow	Michigan 3rd Circuit Court	2015 -
Margaret Van Houten	Michigan 3rd Circuit Court
Catherine Heise	Michigan 3rd Circuit Court
Don Knapp	Michigan 3rd Circuit Court
Carla Testani	Michigan 3rd Circuit Court	2018 -
Charles S. Hegarty	Michigan 3rd Circuit Court
Paul Cusick	Michigan 3rd Circuit Court
Thomas Cameron	Michigan 3rd Circuit Court	2014 - 2017
Edward Joseph	Michigan 3rd Circuit Court
Byron Konschuh	Michigan 40th Circuit Court
George Mertz	Michigan 46th Circuit Court
Cynthia Arvant	Michigan 46th District Court
Richard N. LaFlamme	Michigan 4th Circuit Court
T. David Law	Michigan 52nd District Court
Stacia Buchanan	Michigan 54A District Court
Michael Schipper	Michigan 56B District Court
John Maurer	Michigan 56th Circuit Court
Jeffrey Sauter	Michigan 56th Circuit Court
Amy McDowell	Michigan 5th Circuit Court	2011 - 2019-10-15
Raymond Kostrzewa	Michigan 60th District Court
Christina Elmore	Michigan 61st District Court	2018-12-31
Michael J. Distel	Michigan 61st District Court
Jennifer L. Faber	Michigan 61st District Court
David Guinn	Michigan 67th District Court
Hala Yalda Jarbou	Michigan 6th Circuit Court	2015 - 2020
Jeffery Matis	Michigan 6th Circuit Court
Manvel Trice III	Michigan 70th District Court
David Hoffman	Michigan 70th District Court
Michael Carpenter	Michigan 75th District Court
Eric R. Janes	Michigan 76th District Court
Celeste Bell	Michigan 7th Circuit Court	2018 -
Audrey Van Alst	Michigan 84th District Court
Ronald Schafer	Michigan 8th Circuit Court
Christopher Haenicke	Michigan 8th District Court
Kathleen Hemingway	Michigan 8th District Court
James N. Erhart	Michigan 90th District Court	2012-10-10 - 2019-11-04
Eric Blubaugh	Michigan 91st District Court
Karl Weber	Michigan 96th District Court
Paul J. Bridenstine	Michigan 9th Circuit Court
Cheryl Lohmeyer	Monroe County Probate Court
David J. Distefano	Van Buren County Probate Court
Julia B. Owdziej	Washtenaw County Probate Court
Lawrence Paolucci	Wayne County Probate Court	2015 -
Lisa Marie Neilson	Wayne County Probate Court	2012 -
Edward Van Alst	Wexford County Probate Court

Judicial selection process[edit]

See also: Judicial selection in Michigan

Judicial selection refers to the process used to select judges for courts. At the state level, methods of judicial selection vary substantially in the United States, and in some cases between different court types within a state. There are six primary types of judicial selection: partisan and nonpartisan elections, the Michigan method, assisted appointment, gubernatorial appointment, and legislative elections. To read more about how these selection methods are used across the country, click here.

This article covers how state court judges are selected in Michigan, including:

Michigan Supreme Court,
Michigan Court of Appeals,
Michigan Circuit Court, and
Limited jurisdiction courts

Selection of state court judges in Michigan occurs primarily through nonpartisan elections, although supreme court judges are selected through the Michigan method.^[2] All judges wishing to serve again must run for re-election at the end of their terms.^[3]

Click here to notify us of changes to judicial selection methods in this state.

Appellate state court selection in the United States, by general selection method^[4]

State courts and their selection methods across the U.S., including the District of Columbia^[4]
Method	Supreme Court (of 53)^[5]	Courts of Appeal (of 46)	Trial Courts (of 147)
Partisan elections (PE)	8	6	39
Nonpartisan elections (NPE)	13	16	34
Legislative elections (LE)	2	2	5
Gubernatorial appointment of judges (GA)	5	3	6
Assisted appointment (AA)	22	18	46
Combination or other	3^[6]	1^[7]	17^[8]

Recent news[edit]

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Judicial appointments 'Rick Snyder'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Judges appointed by Rick Snyder - Google News

State profile[edit]

Demographic data for Michigan
	Michigan	U.S.
Total population:	9,917,715	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	56,539	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	79%	73.6%
Black/African American:	14%	12.6%
Asian:	2.7%	5.1%
Native American:	0.5%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.6%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	4.7%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	89.6%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	26.9%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$49,576	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	20%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Michigan. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern[edit]

See also: Presidential voting trends in Michigan

Michigan voted for the Democratic candidate in five out of the six presidential elections between 2000 and 2020.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, 12 are located in Michigan, accounting for 5.83 percent of the total pivot counties.^[9]

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Michigan had 11 Retained Pivot Counties and one Boomerang Pivot County, accounting for 6.08 and 4.00 of all Retained and Boomerang Pivot Counties, respectively.

More Michigan coverage on Ballotpedia

External links[edit]

Office of the Governor

Footnotes[edit]

↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Michigan," archived October 2, 2014
↑ The Michigan-Ohio method involves candidates for a nonpartisan general election being selected using partisan processes.
↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Michigan," archived October 2, 2014
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection," archived February 2, 2015
↑ Both Oklahoma and Texas have two state supreme courts: one for civil matters and one for criminal matters.
↑ Michigan and Ohio use nonpartisan general elections with candidates selected through partisan primaries or conventions. In the District of Columbia, judges are selected in the same manner as federal judges.
↑ Judges of the North Dakota Court of Appeals are appointed on an as-needed basis by the supreme court justices.
↑ Most courts that use combination/alternative methods (for example, mayoral appointment) are local level courts. These courts are often governed by selection guidelines that are unique to their specific region.
↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.

[1] American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Michigan," archived October 2, 2014

[2] The Michigan-Ohio method involves candidates for a nonpartisan general election being selected using partisan processes.

[general-3] American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Michigan," archived October 2, 2014

[define-4] 4.0 ^4.1 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection," archived February 2, 2015

[5] Both Oklahoma and Texas have two state supreme courts: one for civil matters and one for criminal matters.

[6] Michigan and Ohio use nonpartisan general elections with candidates selected through partisan primaries or conventions. In the District of Columbia, judges are selected in the same manner as federal judges.

[7] Judges of the North Dakota Court of Appeals are appointed on an as-needed basis by the supreme court justices.

[8] Most courts that use combination/alternative methods (for example, mayoral appointment) are local level courts. These courts are often governed by selection guidelines that are unique to their specific region.

[9] The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.

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