Elizabeth Ann Weaver (March 28, 1941 – April 21, 2015) was a justice of the

Michigan Supreme Court The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is Michigan's court of last resort and consists of seven justices. The Court is located in the Michigan Hall of Justice at 925 Ottawa Street in Lansing, the s ...

from 1995 to 2010 and served as chief justice from 1999 to 2001.

Life

Weaver was born in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. She received her

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in 1962 from

H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College was the coordinate women's college of Tulane University, located in New Orleans, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It was founded by Josephine Louise Newcomb in 1886 in memory of her daughter. Newcomb was the fir ...

. In 1965, she received her

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from

Tulane University Law School The Tulane University School of Law is the law school of Tulane University. It is located on Tulane's Uptown campus in New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1847, it is the 12th oldest law school in the United States. Campus The law schoo ...

and was admitted to the Louisiana Bar. During law school, she was an editor of the ''

Tulane Law Review The ''Tulane Law Review'', a publication of the Tulane University Law School, was founded in 1916, and is currently published five times annually. The ''Law Review'' has an international circulation. History The ''Law Review'' was started as the ...

.'' After graduating from Tulane, she began her practice working with the

Chevron Corporation Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened t ...

and a private law firm in New Orleans. She eventually relocated to

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, where she taught

first grade First grade (also 1st Grade or Grade 1) is the first year of formal or compulsory education. It is the first year of elementary school, and the first school year after kindergarten. Children in first grade are usually 6–7 years old. Examples ...

and served as the dean of girls at

The Leelanau School The Leelanau School is a co-educational non-profit boarding high school located in Glen Arbor, Michigan. The school was founded in 1929 and has a historical association with Christian Science. The school is a small, college-preparatory school wi ...

in Glen Arbor. In 1973, Weaver was admitted to the Michigan bar. In 1974, she was elected as Leelanau County's

probate court A probate court (sometimes called a surrogate court) is a court that has competence in a jurisdiction to deal with matters of probate and the administration of estates. In some jurisdictions, such courts may be referred to as orphans' courts o ...

judge. In 1987, she was elected to the

Michigan Court of Appeals The Michigan Court of Appeals is the intermediate-level appellate court of the state of Michigan. It was created by the Michigan Constitution of 1963, and commenced operations in 1965. Its opinions are reporter (law), reported both in an officia ...

and was re-elected in 1992.Michigan Court History - Justices Biographies: Elizabeth Weaver
/ref> She is the author (with David B. Schock, Ph.D.) of ''Judicial Deceit: Tyranny and Unnecessary Secrecy at the Michigan Supreme Court'', a telling of the history of the court during her tenure. Her contention was that the court had been overtaken in its thought by appointees of former Governor John M. Engler. During her tenure other members of what she called the Engler Four roundly attacked her, even to the point of trying to silence her public comment with a gag order, Administrativ
Order 2006-08.
During her time at the high court, she remained steadfast that the people of Michigan had a right to know what was going on at the court as long as the matter at hand was not pending or impending an outlined i
Canon 3A (6) of the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct
Even after she left the court she was a staunch critic of behavior of the other justices in revealing racist comments made but Robert Preston Young, Jr., at the time of his re-election in 2010, the court made an ill-fated attempt to censure her. They sent her a letter telling her that she was censured without apparently remembering that the Michigan Supreme Court can censure ONLY on the recommendation of the state Judicial Tenure Commission
per the State Constitution of Michigan of 1963, Article VI, Section 30
, something that had not happened. In publishing her book in 2013, Weaver noted that it was the last remaining obligation she had to the citizens of Michigan. Weaver died on April 21, 2015, in her Glen Arbor home. She was 74.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weaver, Elizabeth 1941 births 2015 deaths Lawyers from New Orleans Tulane University Law School alumni Michigan lawyers Educators from Michigan American women educators Chief justices of the Michigan Supreme Court Michigan Court of Appeals judges Michigan state court judges Educators from Louisiana 20th-century Michigan state court judges 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American women judges Justices of the Michigan Supreme Court 21st-century American women judges 21st-century American judges