Justice, Michigan Supreme Court
Stephen Markman was appointed Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court on October 1, 1999. He served as the Chief Justice from 2017-2019. Before his appointment, he served as Judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals from 1995-1999. Prior to this, he practiced law with the firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone in Detroit.
From 1989-1993, Justice Markman served as United States Attorney, or federal prosecutor, in Michigan, after having been nominated by President George H. W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate. From 1985-1989, he served as Assistant Attorney General of the United States, after having been nominated by President Ronald Reagan and confirmed by the United States Senate. In that position, he headed the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy, which served as the principal policy development office within the Department, and which coordinated the federal judicial selection process. Prior to this, he served for seven years as Chief Counsel of the United States Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, and as Deputy Chief Counsel of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.
Justice Markman has authored articles for such publications as the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, the Detroit College of Law Review, the Stanford Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the American Criminal Justice Law Review, the Barrister’s Law Journal, the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the American University Law Review. He has also served as a contributing editor of National Review magazine, and has authored chapters in such books as “In the Name of Justice: The Aims of the Criminal Law,” “Still the Law of the Land,” and “Originalism: A Quarter Century of Debate.”
Justice Markman has taught constitutional law at Hillsdale College since 1993. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He traveled to Ukraine on two occasions on behalf of the State Department, to provide assistance in the development of that nation’s post-Soviet constitution. He is a Fellow of the Michigan Bar Foundation, a Master of the Bench of the Inns of Court, and a member of the One Hundred Club. He has spoken before hundreds of youth, civic, charitable, and legal groups throughout Michigan and nationally, and has coached Little League baseball and basketball. He lives with his wife Mary Kathleen in Mason, and has two sons, James and Charles.
Justice Markman was re-elected to the Supreme Court in 2000, 2004, and 2012. His present term expires January 1, 2021.
University of Missouri - Columbia, School of Law
Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean and Professor of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law
Dean Tacha is Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean of the School of Law and professor of law. Previously, she was a Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, since January, 1986. She served as Chief Judge from January 2001 through 2007. Dean Tacha earned her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Kansas in 1968 and her juris doctorate from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1971, and was a White House Fellow (1971-1972).
She returned to the University of Kansas where she served as associate professor at its School of Law from 1974-1977 and as professor of law from 1977-1985. She served as associate dean from 1977-1979, as associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs from 1979-1981, and as vice chancellor for Academic Affairs between 1981-1985. In 1992, Dean Tacha received the KU Alumni Association's Fred Ellsworth Medallion for extraordinary service to the university and received its most prestigious award, the Distinguished Service Citation, in 1996. In January of 2010, she was named "Kansan of the Year" by the organization Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas.
Prior to joining the University of Kansas, she practiced law in Washington, D.C. and Kansas, and was for three years Director of the Douglas County Legal Aid Clinic (1974-1977). During her distinguished career, Dean Tacha served as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States and was named in 2006 by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to the Conference's Executive Committee. Previously, Chief Justice Rehnquist appointed her to serve two terms as Chair of the Conference's Committee on the Judicial Branch which oversees the federal judiciary's relationship with Congress and the executive branch. Dean Tacha also was a member of the United States Sentencing Commission which is responsible for studying and making recommendations to Congress about federal sentencing policy.
She has represented the judiciary of the United States internationally on several occasions, including participating in the American College of Trial Lawyers Anglo-American Legal Exchange among members of the bench and bar in the United States and in the United Kingdom. In 1992, the American Bar Association selected Dean Tacha as a member of a delegation of lawyers and judges who traveled to Albania to assist that nation in developing a new constitution and government, and in 2007, Judge Tacha represented American judges in the Canadian-American Legal Exchange.
As a spokesperson for enhanced ethics, professionalism, and civility in the legal profession, Dean Tacha has been active in the American Inns of Court movement. She helped found the Judge Hugh Means American Inn of Court in Lawrence, served on the national Board of Trustees of the American Inns of Court, and was its national president from 2004-2008. Her contributions to the legal profession were recognized when she was named recipient of the Devitt Award in 2007, the highest honor given to a federal judge for distinguished lifetime service. In 2008, she was recipient of the John Marshall Award, which the American Bar Association bestows for positively impacting the justice system.
Dean Tacha holds professional memberships in the American Bar Association, American Bar Foundation (Life Member), American Law Institute, Kansas Bar Association, Phi Beta Kappa, and Order of Coif and she is admitted to the Bar in Kansas, Missouri, and the District of Columbia. Additionally, she is a past chair of the Appellate Judges Conference and a former member of the ABA's Commission on Women in the Profession.
Dean Tacha has held leadership positions in numerous civic and charitable organizations including chairing the Kansas Territorial Sesquicentennial Commission, the Lawrence/Douglas County Heritage Area Commission, and the Freedom's National Heritage Area Board of Trustees. She has served as a member of the board of directors or as a trustee at Kansas State Historical Society, Kansas Health Foundation, Baker University, Saint Paul School of Theology, Lawrence Arts Center, and First United Methodist Church, Lawrence, to name a few.
What Should the President or Governor Consider When Appointing a Judge?
231 West Lafayette Room 115 Detroit, MichiganThe Future of Federal Sentencing Policy
2000 National Lawyers Convention
Washington, DC