The Michigan Supreme Court History Timeline
1805 – Creation of Territorial Court: Court of Three appointed by president for terms “during good behavior.”
1805, March 3 – Woodward is appointed to serve as First Chief Justice.
1805 – Frederick Bates is appointed to the Court.
1805, July 29 – The first case heard by the Supreme Court of the Michigan Territory.
1805, October 8 – Woodward Codes are adopted.
1808 – James Witherell joins the Court. He is the only veteran from the American Revolution to serve on Michigan’s Supreme Court.
1823 – Congressional Act: Court of Three appointed by President for Four-Year Terms.
1828 – William Woodbridge joins the Territorial Supreme Court and becomes the first of three justices who go on to become Governors of the State of Michigan. The other two are Alpheus Felch (Court Service 1842 – 1845, Service as Governor 1846 – 1847) and Epaphroditus Ransom (Court Service 1836 – 1848, Service as Governor 1848 – 1850).
1835 – State Constitution: Court of Three appointed by Governor with consent of the Senate for seven-year terms; judges to preside over one of the three Judicial Circuits.
1836 – Revision of Woodward Codes begins.
1836, July 18 – First members of the Michigan Supreme Court, Justices Fletcher, Morrell, and Ransom are appointed by Governor Mason.
1837, January 26 – Michigan granted Statehood.
1838 – Revised Statutes: Court of Four appointed by Governor with consent of the Senate for seven-year terms; Judges to preside over one of the four Judicial Circuits.
1848 – New law Court of Five appointed by Governor for seven-year terms.
1850 – Michigan adopts a New Constitution allowing for election of Supreme Court Justices to six-year terms. In what is called the “Noble Experiment,” Justices also serve as Circuit Court Justices.
1857 – Benjamin Frankling Hawkins Witherell, son of James Witherell, serves on the Court. The Witherells are the only father-son justices in Michigan’s history.
1858, January 1 – Reorganization of the Michigan Supreme Court providing for a bench of one Chief Justice and three Associate Justices elected for eight-year terms.
1868 – 1875 – The “Big Four” Justices Campbell, Christiancy, Cooley and Graves, sit together on the Michigan Supreme Court Bench.
1878, November 22 – The Court adjourns in the “temporary court building.” The next term is held in the Courtroom in Lansing’s new Capitol Building.
1879 – The Court moves into the Lansing Capitol.
1887 – Legislative Act: Court of Five justices elected for ten-year terms.
1890 – Justice James V. Campbell dies after serving 32 years on the Court.
1903 – Act 250: Court of Eight justices elected for eight-year terms.
1908 – Michigan adopts a new Constitution.
1928 – Richard C. Flannigan becomes the shortest sitting Justice by being a member of the Court for only four weeks.
1954 – Harry F. Kelly becomes the first of three former Governors to serve on the Michigan Supreme Court. The other two are G. Mennen Williams (Service as Governor 1949 – 1960, Court Service 1971 – 1986) and John B. Swainson (Service as Governor 1961 – 1962, Court Service 1971 – 1975).
1960 – Theodore Souris becomes the first Justice of Greek heritage to sit on the Court.
1961 – Otis M. Smith becomes the first African American Justice on the Court.
1963 – Michigan adopts a new Constitution that reduces the number of sitting justices from eight to seven. The new Constitution states “the judicial power of the state is vested in one court of justice…the Supreme Court shall have general superintending control over all courts.” Court of Seven, eight-year terms, justices elected (no more party conventions).
1969 – Thomas E. Brennan becomes the Court’s youngest Chief Justice.
1969 – The Court moves to a “temporary” home at the Law Building / Seven Story Office Building on the Capitol Complex. This would later be named the G. Mennen Williams Law Building.
1970, March 3 – With the new Courtroom location in the Law Building, the Court officially adjourns from the Capitol Courtroom.
1972 – Charles Levin forms the “phantom” Non-Partisan Judiciary Party and nominates himself for election to the Court. He wins.
1973 – Mary S. Coleman becomes the first woman to sit on the Michigan Supreme Court.
1975, November 7 – John Swainson resigns from the Court after being “convicted of lying to a federal grand jury.” He is “the first Michigan Supreme Court justice ever convicted of a felony.”[i] James Ryan is appointed to the vacant seat.
1979 – Mary S. Coleman becomes the first woman to serve as Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.
1982 – Dorothy Comstock Riley becomes the first justice of Hispanic descent to sit on the Court.
1983, February 15 – Dorothy Comstock Riley is removed from the Court. Sitting Justice Blair Moody died after reelection to the Court days before. Based on the gubernatorial appointment language of the Michigan constitution, Riley is appointed by lame duck Governor William Milliken to an interim term ending at the next general election, but Attorney General Frank Kelley, citing the same constitutional provision, sues to have her ousted because Moody’s unexpired term ended after 5 weeks. After an embarrassing delay, a weekend reversal and accusations of partisanship, the Court ousts Riley, but she is elected to the Court two years later.
1988 – Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society is founded by Chief Justice Dorothy Comstock Riley.
1995, October 10 – Twenty-five years after it left the Capitol Courtroom, the Court returns to begin its term in the Old Courtroom.
1997 – Michigan becomes the second state in history, following Minnesota, to have a female majority on the Supreme Court (the majority lasted only nine months).
1997 Conrad L. Mallett, Jr. becomes the first African American to serve as Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.
2002, May 8 – The Court holds its final session in the G. Mennen Williams Building Courtroom.
2002, October 8 – The Court dedicates its new permanent home, the Hall of Justice.
2013, January 21 – Diane Hathaway resigns from the Court shortly after pleading guilty in federal court to charges of fraud. David Viviano is appointed to the vacant seat.
2023 – Justice Kyra Harris Bolden, the first African American woman, joins the Court.
2025 – Megan K. Cavanagh is elected Chief Justice. Daughter of former Chief Justice Michael K. Cavanagh, she is the first chief justice who is a child of a chief justice.
[i] Swainson Quits Seat on Supreme Court, The Times Herald (November 8, 1975), p 1A.