The Michigan Supreme Court expanded its liberal majority in 2024, with the help of massive cash infusions from billionaires including George Soros, dark money groups, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

Dark money groups not required to disclose donors contributed more than $5 million to help elect incumbent Justice Kyra Harris Bolden and law professor Kimberly Ann Thomas to the state’s highest court, an amount that exceeds the total raised by all four candidates for the two seats by more than $1 million, Bridge Michigan reports.

The donations included nearly $4.4 million through mid-October from a shady Massachusetts-based nonprofit called The Justice Project Action, the largest donor to Supreme Court candidates this year.

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Those donations went to a Justice For All super PAC backing Bolden and Thomas that has spent nearly $10.7 million on Democratic nominees to the high court since 2020. In 2024, $5.25 million out of $7.9 million raised by Justice For All came from dark money groups, which also included the Michigan Civic Action Fund and the Strategic Victory Fund.

Other funding included $1 million from former billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and $560,000 from the George Soros funded super PAC State Victory Action, according to Bridge’s review of campaign finance records through mid-October.

Super PACs including Justice For All can receive funding from any source and are not required to disclose conflicts of interest between donors and justices that may preside over cases involving donors.

Justice For All is linked to the Michigan Association for Justice, “a non-profit membership association dedicated to advancing the needs and interest of trial lawyers.”

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Others chipping in to elect liberal justices included Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s Michigan Legacy PAC, which gave at least $82,500 each to Bolden and Thomas. The PAC donated about $400,000 to Democratic state House candidates and others running for judicial posts, as well, campaign finance records show.

The vast majority of contributions to the Michigan Legacy PAC came from out of state, with six-figure sums coming from California, Florida, and Virginia.

The donation to Bolden, in particular, raised serious questions about the justice’s impartiality in recent decisions involving Benson’s office.

Bolden was appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to replace former Chief Justice Bridget McCormack, who retired after nine years on the bench to become CEO of the American Arbitration Association.

Bolden, a former lawmaker, played a key role in the high court’s Democratic majority allowing Benson to keep Robert F. Kennedy’s name on the Michigan presidential ballot despite the candidate dropping out of the race to endorse President-elect Donald Trump.

Benson, whose PAC has not contributed to a single Republican since it launched in July 2023, now faces multiple complaints to the State Bar of Michigan’s Attorney Grievance Commission that cite her PAC’s campaign contributions.

The most recent, from Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra, alleges Benson “engaged in behavior that creates an appearance of impropriety and brings the legal profession into disrepute.”

“In the context of consistent rebukes from courts, and with a critical case impacting her power to unilaterally rewrite election rules being actively litigated before the Michigan Supreme Court, Benson made a historically large political campaign contribution to a sitting Michigan Supreme Court Justice,” the complaint read. “That large contribution appears to have been an attempt to influence the Justice’s pending decision.

“And after receiving that large contribution from Benson, the Justice in question wrote an opinion reversing the lower court rulings, thereby disregarding decades of precedent in order to allow Benson to continue her efforts to weaken Michigan Election Laws.”

State Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, has also requested Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Clement consider whether Bolden violated the court’s code of conduct by accepting Benson’s campaign contribution while deciding cases involving the Secretary of State.

The concerns about conflicts of interest between donors and those elected to decide cases involving them are nothing new, with Bridge pointing to warnings for years about the issue.

“This flood of secret money leaves voters without important information about the interests trying to shape state courts, and it can obscure potential conflicts of interest for judges and litigants alike, according to a 2018 report on “The Rise of Dark Money” from the Brennan Center for Justice.

“The courtroom is supposed to be a place where everyone is equal before the law,” the report read. “Recent trends in judicial elections put that basic value at risk.”

In Michigan, it means the Supreme Court now moves from a 4-3 Democratic majority to a 5-2 Democratic majority, thanks to the Democratic candidates outraising their Republican opponents 9-to-1.