Rick Snyder passes first major test as governor

I happened to miss this completely, which isn't surprising as my time's been limited lately. Right Michigan has the story. It's a good news and bad news situation. The bad news is that Justice Maura Corrigan left the Supreme Court to go to the department of human services. She did a great job there. The good news is that Rick Snyder picked a good replacement in Brian Zahra. I remember Zahra when he ran a sacrificial lamb campaign for the spot.

From Right Michigan:

"Judge Zahra's 16 years of judicial experience and his razor-sharp intelligence will make him an outstanding addition to the court," Snyder said.

Snyder, who campaigned as "one tough nerd" to win the governor's race in November, noted Zahra is "a self-described law geek."

"This is a case where it's nice to say a nerd gets to appoint a geek," Snyder said at a news conference."


Not just a nerd, but a federalist, a rule of law man, and an outright decent guy. I found it interesting that an entry in judgepedia reflected his similarity to the justice being replaced; Maura Corrigan. Under judicial philosophy they quote him:

"One area in which I can emphatically state we are better off today than eight years ago relates to the court system." Explaining that he shares the philosophy of Justice Maura Corrigan and the majority of the Michigan Supreme Court, Zahra said he aims to search for the rule of law and respects the separation of powers, "Leaving to the legislature the significant policy questions of the day."

I'm a skeptic about Snyder and there isn't a lot of good that was said about him on the blog during his campaign. He was my last choice in the GOP primary. I have a wait and see attitude on him as he's still very much an unknown. This, however, is a very good start, and the credit goes to the nerd here for making the right decision.