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Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Weaver dies at 74

Michigan Women's Hall of Fame

Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Weaver passed away Tuesday night at her home in Glen Arbor. She was 74. Weaver served on the state’s highest court for 15 years, until her resignation in 2010.

Weaver came to Leelanau County from her native New Orleans shortly after receiving her law degree from Tulane University.

In a 2005 interview with IPR, she talked about settling in Glen Arbor.

“I decided to stay and then I decided (to) be a lawyer up here," said Weaver. "(I) took the bar (and) opened my own practice. There was an opening for the Leelanau County probate judge and I ran. I unseated the incumbent.”

Weaver served as a probate judge for 12 years. She also taught first grade at Glen Lake Elementary School.

In 1987, Weaver was elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals and then in 1995, she joined the Michigan Supreme Court, where she would stay for 15 years. During her time on the Supreme Court, Weaver often clashed with her fellow justices over her strong opinions about judicial reform.

“I do believe that we have seen the courts become, over the years, activists," said Weaver in 2005. "What’s important is how we choose justices and that’s why I have talked some about how we have to change the way we select our justices. We have to get some check and balance and the public needs to be able to trust the Supreme Court.”

Weaver was outspoken in her belief that special interests had taken over the Supreme Court. In 2013, she co-authored a book called “Judicial Deceit: Tyranny and Unnecessary Secrecy at the Michigan Supreme Court.”

David Schock wrote the book with her.

“She felt that the book was the last thing that she owed the people of Michigan … to explain to them the dangers of absolute power and unnecessary secrecy, which would result in abuses, no matter who was at the helm,” said Schock.

Schock said Weaver lived by her personal motto, “Do Right and Fear Not.”