State Sen. Jim Runestad on Tuesday formally requested Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Clement to consider whether fellow Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden violated the court’s code of conduct.
The White Lake Republican penned a letter to Clement Tuesday “to request a review of Justice Kyra Harris Bolden’s ruling in favor of a defendant after accepting a large campaign contribution from them while their case was pending before the Michigan Supreme Court.”
The letter cites the majority opinion from Bolden in O’Halloran v. Benson, in which Republicans challenged guidance from Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in 2022 that set new rules for partisan elections challengers.
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Bolden sided with Democratic justices in the narrow 4-3 opinion she authored that reversed an appeals court ruling that struck down some of Benson’s rules for election challengers and poll watchers.
Benson appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court last November, before her Michigan Legacy PAC in April gave Bolden $82,500 for her campaign to retain her seat on the state’s highest court.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed Bolden to the Supreme Court to replace former Chief Justice Bridget McCormack, who retired after nine years on the bench to become CEO of the American Arbitration Association.
Bolden was celebrated at the time as the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
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Bolden, a former lawmaker, is running against Republican William O’Grady, a longtime circuit court judge in Brach County who has presided over nearly 14,000 criminal and civil cases, according to Bridge Michigan.
The winner will serve the remainder of McCormack’s term through 2028.
“Based on this timeline and pursuant to Canon 2 of the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct, Justice Bolden should have recused herself from the case in order to avoid the appearance of impropriety,” Runestad wrote to Clement.
“I would like you to investigate this exchange and weigh in on whether or not there was any impropriety in Justice Bolden accepting a large political campaign donation from a defendant with a case before the court.”
Section A of Canon 2 of the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct states, “A judge must avoid all impropriety and appearance of impropriety” and “must expect to be the subject of constant public scrutiny.”
Section G states, “No judge may accept any contribution of money, directly or indirectly, for a campaign deficit or for expenses associated with judicial office.”
“I think there would be an ethical question for the judge and there’d probably be an ethical question for the secretary of state side as well,” Brad Smith, law professor at Capital University Law School in Ohio, told The Detroit News.
“Whether it’s illegal is a different question,” Smith said. “But there are a lot of things that aren’t illegal or even exact violations of an ethical code that voters might want to take into account.”
Attorney David A. Kallman told The Midwesterner that it has the “appearance of impropriety,” which he notes is the more accurate legal terminology in cases where no laws are being broken and rise to the legal standard of conflict of interest.
Kallman noted Bolden also participated in a 5-2 decision to back Benson’s efforts to keep Natural Law Party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on this November’s ballot, despite Kennedy dropping out of the race to endorse former President Donald Trump. Political observers believe keeping Kennedy on the ballot will benefit Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats next month.
The Supreme Court order involving Kennedy was unsigned, but the decision reflected the partisan division on the bench.
In addition to Bolden, Benson’s Michigan Legacy PAC has also donated at least $82,500 to Democratic Supreme Court candidate Kimberly Thomas, as well as five figure sums to the state House and Senate Democratic funds, as well as several individual candidates for the state House.
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Beyond Bolden and Thomas, Benson’s PAC has doled out a total of about $400 in donations to Democratic state House candidates and others running for judicial posts.
“It calls into question Benson’s claim to run her office in a bipartisan manner,” wrote Kaitlyn Buss, assistant editorial page editor for The Detroit News. “Worse, it fuels growing voter mistrust in the integrity and impartiality of the electoral process.”
Republicans have seized on that reality to call out Benson, who aspires to replace Whitmer in 2026, for gaming the system while promising to be nonpartisan.
The Michigan GOP released a radio ad in September that aimed to expose “Michigan SOS Jocelyn Benson’s election interference to boost Kamala Harris.”
“Michigan’s top election official Jocelyn Benson donated more than $82,000 from her Detroit PAC to Democrat Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden,” MI GOP Chairman Pete Hoekstra said in the ad. “Benson then sued to keep Robert Kennedy on the ballot after he had dropped out and endorsed Donald Trump.
“It was Bolden’s Supreme Court that stepped in at the last minute and put RFK on the ballot. The Democrats are cheating.”
In Benson’s first failed campaign for secretary of state, the former “hate crimes” investigator for the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center argued “our Secretary of State must operate the office in a nonpartisan manner.”
“That’s why upon taking office I will take an Oath of Nonpartisanship, pledging to the citizens of Michigan a neutral and nonpartisan administration,” her campaign website read. “That means you won’t find me co-chairing any campaigns or endorsing any candidates in elections which I serve as the final certifier of election results.”
In November 2023, Benson endorsed Adam Hollier in his unsuccessful bid to challenge first-term Congressman Shri Thanedar, D-Detroit.
Benson’s PAC has not donated to a single Republican since it launched in July 2023 with the promise to support “pro-democracy” candidates and initiatives.