Kimberly Ann Thomas, the Ann Arborite running for the Michigan Supreme Court this November, took a sidewalk seat at a café across from the Diag recently, to talk with Current about her approach to judicial matters and why she is running. The University of Michigan Law School professor, mother and one time editorial board member of the Clinical Law Review, specializes in juvenile and civil-criminal litigation.
Originally raised in Maryland with parents who had left the coal mining world, Thomas moved to Michigan after graduating from the University of Maryland and worked as a journalist briefly until a strike in 1995. She then went to Harvard Law School, where she got a J.D.
“I always wanted to do some sort of law that was of service to people,” Thomas said of how she came to her legal specialization. “I obviously wasn’t coming from a family of lawyers, so I didn’t know what all of those options were, but I understood that law had an impact on people’s lives in very tangible ways I wanted to be a positive impact on people.”
She clerked at an appeals court and was a public defense attorney after that. It was then that Thomas returned to Michigan and joined the Michigan Law School, and is now in charge of the clinical program, in which law students get courtroom experience by representing clients who can’t afford counsel on their own.
The American justice system is theoretically supposed to provide equal protections under the law, but the history of disparities along racial, economic and gender lines are well documented. Countering this is in fact half of that point of the law clinic Thomas runs.
When asked what leading that program has done to her understanding of how the law works in the real world, rather than in theory, Thomas said, “I have been in our trial courts for over 20 years. You see the dynamics there. I think that that understanding of local practice is important on the state Supreme Court, to understand the system from start to finish.”
When asked what Thomas is like on a personal level, Debra Chopp, a colleague of Thomas’ at the Law School, said, “Kim as a person is very similar to Kim as an attorney. She is so hard working and driven. She runs multiple marathons every year and that is who she is – she puts 100% into everything she does.”
After some initial surprise upon hearing the news, it made sense to Chopp when she found out that Thomas was running. She added, “This Law School job is a pretty good gig. We get to teach, write, litigate cases that we care about. So, if somebody leaves this job to try and do something else, it means that they are really excited about the something else.”
The rhetoric and divisive politicization of the judicial system that has characterized so much of the past decade of American life has played an increasing role in what is supposed to be the most apolitical branch of American politics. The Pew Research Center found last August that just 47% of Americans view the federal supreme court favorably, with a marked partisan divide. State supreme court politics can be just as divisive.
The election on November 5 will decide control with two elections, including a special election for incumbent Kyra Harris Bolden, a Whitmer appointee who is running for reelection separately against Republican Patrick W. O’Grady. The routine partisan gridlock that has defined the last couple of administrations federally and increasingly on the state levels of government has effectively given more and more power to the courts. This has been demonstrated in wins for progressive causes in the legalization of gay marriage, and more recently in the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn nearly half a century of legal precedent protecting abortion access in Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs decision. The result on electoral politics has been profound and has led to progressive wins referenda supporting abortion access, and has led to memorable state supreme court election victories for Democrats across states, notably in neighboring Wisconsin.
Elections for the Mitten State’s highest court are officially non-partisan, but it is widely understood that there is a divide of 4 Democrats and three Republicans on the seven justice bench, according to Ballotpedia, which tracks elections. Thomas’ Republican opponent is Michigan House member Andrew Fink. A retired marine, Fink represents rural communities in the Coldwater and Hillsdale areas, southwest of Jackson, in his thirty-fifth district.
Fink did not respond to a request to comment for this article, but he says on the home page of his campaign website that “I am running for the Michigan Supreme Court because our justice system needs to be focused on the law, not the personal views of the judge. Upholding our Constitutional rights is a judge’s sacred duty because every one of us deserves due process, equal protection of the laws, and the guarantee of a fair day in court.”
On that note, Thomas strikes a similar tone. She told Current: “I think that there’s two concerns: partisanship and judicial ethics. The Michigan Supreme Court has a code of judicial ethics, which justices and candidates have to follow – which I think is different to states across the country – even in terms of campaigns. We are of course on the nonpartisan section of the ballot in November. That’s not true in every state, and I think that’s important. … That’s symbolic, but I think it’s meaningful because once you’re elected, you have to represent everybody.”
As for her politics, Thomas said “The Michigan Supreme Court gets the cases that come to it. The law is the law, you can’t go out and look for cases. What comes to you is what people are litigating in the lower court; you’re not seeking cases to make a political point.”
The Michigan Supreme Court reviews around 2,000 cases a year, according to the state of Michigan, but only two or three percent go before the justices. Thomas thinks that the current court does a good job “through the Michigan Judicial Council to think systemically of how we can improve all of our courts for people in Michigan – to make them more user friendly, more accessible. I know that that’s a long project, but I want to be a part of that.” Thomas didn’t think that the court is doing anything especially badly but emphasizes the need for transparency when the court issues rulings that some people find controversial.
This is Thomas’ first run for office. She has plenty of experience as an attorney, but when asked what she would say to voters who might have questions about the fact that she is running for what is nearly the top of the judicial branch and hasn’t had experience as a judge before, Thomas said that the court can benefit from a wide range of experiences – including justices who previously served as judges and those who haven’t. Her opponent has also never ben a judge before.
“Our federal and state constitutions are the best defense of our freedoms, and our state Supreme Court must demonstrate this same unwavering commitment to our constitutional freedoms and structure of government,” Fink said on his website. “The time I have spent as an elected official has been committed wholeheartedly to defending our rights from encroachment and adhering to our constitutional system of separation of powers. Nowhere is this more crucial than in our judiciary, and especially in the highest judicial body in our state, the Michigan Supreme Court. By ensuring that duty and honor are held in high esteem within our judiciary, we can reverse the declining faith in our governing institutions caused by activist judges and special interests abusing our court system. Our state needs justices who will not waver from their duty of upholding the Constitution, maintaining the separation of powers in government, and defending our constitutional freedom.”
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Thomas spoke at the Ann Arbor Pride Festival this summer. In between musical acts on the main stage of the festival, she asked, “The Michigan Supreme Court is the last stop for your rights and freedoms in Michigan. Do you care about civil rights? Do you care about healthcare? Do you care about labor and employment? All of those issues are important issues in front of your Michigan Supreme Court. We need court systems that are fair, that treat everyone [the] with dignity and respect that they deserve.”
Drew Saunders is a freelance business and environmental journalist who grew up just outside of Ann Arbor. He covers local business developments, embraces his foodie side with reviews restaurants, obsesses over Michigan's environmental state, loves movies, and feels spoiled by the music he gets to review for Ann Arbor!