That the United States still doesn’t have a president-elect is not news. Little has changed in the past week.
But what effects the new president - when elected - will have on the state and national courts remains to be seen. That was the topic of an MSU-Detroit College of Law forum held Thursday night.
The Law Review of MSU-DCL hosted “What’s Next? The Impact of the Election on the Future of Our Courts” in the Castle Board Room of the MSU-DCL Building.
Eight panelists made short presentations about how they feel the courts will be affected by the presidential election - which is still undecided as the nation waits for Florida officials to release final tallies - as well as the local elections.
David McKeague, a U.S. District Court judge, spoke first and took the opportunity to poke fun at the presidential election. He then continued to give the audience a good idea of what can happen if Vice President Al Gore wins or if Texas Gov. George W. Bush triumphs.
McKeague said the next president could potentially appoint four Supreme Court justices. Some suggest Bush would appoint conservative justices looking to toughen abortion laws.
Gore, many believe, would appoint liberals who would shy away from acting on abortion law. Either way, the campaign was hard fought.
“I am not going to call our next president the winner,” he said. “I am going to call them the survivor.”
McKeague was joined on the judicial perspective by Frank DelVero, Marvin Robinson and Robert Young Jr., - all judges in Michigan courts.
After judges spoke, several analysts responded with their own arguments on the issues. James Madison Professor Harold Spaeth added to the financial arguments brought up by the judges in the first half of the forum. He said judicial races are decided by name recognition and by cash.
“The people who are going to win anyway end up spending the most money,” Spaeth said, referring to the incumbent judges who were consistently ahead in the polls. But he doesn’t think it will last past this year’s elections. “2002 will be a return to the good old days where no one pays attention to any judicial race.”
Spaeth was joined by MSU-DCL Professor Greg Mitchell, Detroit Free Press reporter Brian Dickerson and Steve Mitchell, president of Mitchell Research and Communication, a company that does election polling for newspapers and television stations across the state. While the unknown election outcome made it hard for speakers to predict judicial effects, MSU-DCL Dean Terence Blackburn was happy with the forum.
“This is an important part of what the law school does,” Blackburn said. “We not only educate in the classroom but also in the community.”
