Mary Beth Kelly
From Ballotpedia - Reading time: 8 min
2021 - Present
2027
1
Mary Beth Kelly is a judge of the Michigan 3rd Circuit Court. She assumed office on January 1, 2021. Her current term ends on January 1, 2027.
Kelly ran for election for judge of the Michigan 3rd Circuit Court. She won in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Kelly was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court on November 2, 2010, and took office on January 1, 2011, for an eight-year term that would have ended on January 1, 2019.[1][2] Kelly retired from the court on October 1, 2015, in order to join Bodman PLC in Detroit as a partner and vice chair.[3]
Biography[edit]
Education[edit]
Kelly received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan-Dearborn and her J.D. from Notre Dame Law School.[4]
Career[edit]
Prior to becoming a judge, Kelly worked in the private practice of law. She joined the law firm Dickinson Wright in 1987 and became a partner at the firm, where her work focused on commercial litigation.[4]
She was appointed to the Third Circuit Court in 1999 by then-Governor John Engler, where she served for 11 years. She became the first woman to serve as chief judge of the Third Circuit Court when the Michigan Supreme Court appointed her in 2002. She served as chief judge until 2007. During that time, the Family Division of the court doubled in size, and she led efforts to improve the racial diversity of the jury system.[4]
Elections[edit]
2020[edit]
See also: Municipal elections in Wayne County, Michigan (2020)
General election for Michigan 3rd Circuit Court (2 seats)
Mary Beth Kelly and Chandra Baker defeated Nicholas Hathaway and Shakira Hawkins in the general election for Michigan 3rd Circuit Court on November 3, 2020.
Candidate |
% |
Votes |
||
| ✔ |
|
Mary Beth Kelly (Nonpartisan) |
27.7
|
279,106 |
| ✔ |
|
Chandra Baker (Nonpartisan) 
|
24.9
|
250,575 |
|
|
Nicholas Hathaway (Nonpartisan) |
24.8
|
250,204 | |
|
|
Shakira Hawkins (Nonpartisan) |
21.5
|
217,113 | |
| Other/Write-in votes |
1.1
|
11,011 | ||
|
Total votes: 1,008,009 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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||||
Nonpartisan primary for Michigan 3rd Circuit Court (2 seats)
The following candidates ran in the primary for Michigan 3rd Circuit Court on August 4, 2020.
Candidate |
% |
Votes |
||
| ✔ |
|
Mary Beth Kelly (Nonpartisan) |
24.0
|
110,998 |
| ✔ |
|
Nicholas Hathaway (Nonpartisan) |
20.7
|
95,867 |
| ✔ |
|
Chandra Baker (Nonpartisan)
|
19.4
|
89,943 |
| ✔ |
|
Shakira Hawkins (Nonpartisan) |
15.7
|
72,827 |
|
|
Frank Simone (Nonpartisan)
|
11.0
|
50,763 | |
|
|
Deana Beard (Nonpartisan) |
8.6
|
39,754 | |
| Other/Write-in votes |
0.6
|
2,652 | ||
|
Total votes: 462,804 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. |
||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Dennis Donahue (Nonpartisan)
2010[edit]
- See also: Michigan judicial elections, 2010
Kelly won election to the Michigan Supreme Court on November 2, 2010. Though Michigan judicial elections are technically nonpartisan, she was nominated by the Republican Party. She received 29.94 percent of the total votes for the Supreme Court, defeating incumbent Democratic Judge Alton Davis.[1][5][6]
Campaign themes[edit]
2020[edit]
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Mary Beth Kelly did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Notable opinions authored[edit]
Since joining the Michigan Supreme Court in 2011, Justice Kelly has authored the following notable opinions:
- In Stand Up for Democracy v. Secretary of State, she authored the lead opinion which allowed a referendum of the Emergency Financial Manager law to appear on the ballot.
- In People v. Kolanek, she authored a unanimous opinion that was the first Supreme Court opinion to interpret the medical marijuana law.
- Her majority opinion in People v. Likine held that a defendant's inability to pay child support is not a defense to failure to pay child support, although the common-law defense of impossibility to pay still applied to that crime.
- Her dissenting opinion in People v. White recognized that a juvenile suspect's youthfulness makes him more susceptible to police interrogation techniques.
Political ideology[edit]
In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan ideology of state supreme court justices. They created a scoring system in which a score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology, while scores below 0 were more liberal.
Kelly received a campaign finance score of 0.72, indicating a conservative ideological leaning. This was more conservative than the average score of 0.05 that justices received in Michigan.
The study was based on data from campaign contributions by the judges themselves, the partisan leaning of those who contributed to the judges' campaigns, or, in the absence of elections, the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice, but an academic summary of various relevant factors.[7]
Noteworthy events[edit]
Kelly asks Governor to commute sentence (2005)[edit]
On May 23, 2005, Judge Kelly asked Governor Jennifer Granholm to commute the sentence of a woman convicted in 1993 of killing her boyfriend as he slept. In a two-page letter to Granholm, Kelly wrote, "Unfortunate cases such as this bring home the fact that our legal system is not perfect, as well that the appellate process does not cure each imperfection." She noted that Hargrave-Thomas was the "victim of poor representation." According to The Detroit Free Press, trial judge Wendy Baxter sentenced Hargrave-Thomas to mandatory life in prison without parole, and in 2002, U.S. District Judge Paul Gadola overturned her conviction, ordering her release.[8]
See also[edit]
2020 Elections
External links[edit]
|
Candidate Michigan 3rd Circuit Court |
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Michigan Department of State, "2010 Unofficial General Election Results"
- ↑ Michigan Constitution, "Article VI, Section 23"
- ↑ Crain's Detroit Business, "Michigan Supreme Court Justice Mary Beth Kelly to leave court, join Bodman in Detroit," August 17, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Michigan Courts, "Supreme Court biography"
- ↑ Michigan Department of State, "2010 Official Michigan General Candidate Listing" Scroll down to "Justice of the Supreme Court..."
- ↑ The MI Lawyers Weekly Blog, "Parties select MSC candidates," August 30, 2010
- ↑ Stanford University, "State Supreme Court Ideology and 'New Style' Judicial Campaigns," October 31, 2012
- ↑ Prison Talk, "Judge wants governor to commute woman's sentence," May 25, 2005
Federal courts:
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Michigan, Western District of Michigan • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Michigan, Western District of Michigan
State courts:
Michigan Supreme Court • Michigan Court of Appeals • Michigan Circuit Court • Michigan District Courts • Michigan Probate Courts
State resources:
Courts in Michigan • Michigan judicial elections • Judicial selection in Michigan
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