The American Justice Partnership is a lobbying group formed to promote tort reform through its various "hardball" (the AJP's word, not mine) tactics. From its website: "AJP has nearly a decade of experience in beating the trial bar on major issues." Not so sure about that.
One of the founders of the group is former Michigan Governor John Engler who reigned from 1991-2003, during which time he appointed many tort reform judges and justices to Michigan courts. Current Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Young was first appointed to judicial office by Governor Engler in 1995 to the Michigan Court of Appeals. Governor Engler than promoted him to the Michigan Supreme Court by appointing him to that particular bench in 1999. Information from Justice Young's website.
The president of the American Justice Partnership is Dan Pero, who was described in a 1991 profile as "Longtime ally, close friend, best man, and chief of staff for Governor Engler." Though the AJP has a strong Michigan flavor, it bills itself as a national organization.
In 2010, Justice Young faced a particularly contentious re-election campaign (in my opinion). On September 29, 2010, in the midst of that campaign, the Guardian of Justice Award was bestowed on Justice Young by the American Justice Partnership, Justice Young was the first recipient of what was billed as an "annual" award, described on the web page thusly: "Each year we recognize an individual who fights to preserve the Constitution and defend the principles of justice and the courts as written by the Founders. We present that individual with the Guardian of Justice Award."
Justice Young won re-election, though he did not finish first.
Justice Young was described on the AJP web page as the "first annual recipient of our Guardian of Justice Award". Though the AJP appears to be well funded, there did not appear to be an awards banquet, or even a presentation event for which I could find a record. Now, the cynical among us might assume that the 2010 Guardian of Justice Award was just something made up by some of Justice Young's patrons to add to his resume to help him during a difficult re-election campaign. (though even the most cynical would further assume that there was probably a certificate or block of lucite evidencing the award somewhere).
For all you textualists out there, the word "annual"is defined as something done or occurring every year. I waited, with some trepidation, to learn the name of the 2011 recipient. Surely, there must be some other judge in the US that fights to preserve the principles of justice, as defined by the AJP. Well as of about 14 hours ago, 2011 ended, and I can find no reference to a 2011 award winner anywhere on the AJP site, or on the internet.
What do we learn from this? That our legal system in such disarray that, in the whole country, only Justice Robert Young fights to preserve the principles of justice? Yike. Or do we learn that no particular friend of John Engler or Dan Pero was facing a tough campaign in 2011. Personally, I believe the latter.
Well, the late Jeane Dixon, a "psychic, used to make predictions at the beginning of every calendar year. Jeane died in 1997. So in her honor, and in celebration of the New Year, let me make my own prediction. In 2012 the winner of the American Justice Guardian of Justice Award will be Justice Stephen Markman of the Michigan Supreme Court. By the way, Justice Markman was appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court by Michigan Governor John Engler in 1999 (the same year as Robert Young, by the way). He will be running for re-election this year. My alternate prediction is that, in order to make up for 2011, the AJP will name not one, but two Guardians of Justice in 2012. The awardees will be both of the Republican nominees for the Michigan Supreme Court election in November (there will be two Republican incumbents running).
Happy New Year.