NOW Spotlight on Supreme Court Candidates: Jennifer Granholm

By Angela Griffore, Field Intern

Along with reports that President Obama may announce his Supreme Court pick this week has come confirmation that Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm is on the short-list for potential nominees. Granholm, who is term-limited and leaves office in December, was also considered last year during the process to replace Justice David Souter, when Obama chose federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Granholm is a Canadian-born U.S. politician who is an honors graduate of both the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard Law School. Granholm’s experience includes being a judicial clerk for Michigan’s 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal prosecutor in Detroit in 1990, and she was also appointed to the Wayne County Corporation Counsel in 1994.

Granholm is a pioneer in Michigan’s government. She was elected Michigan’s first female attorney general in 1998, and became Michigan’s first female governor in 2003. Since being in office, Granholm has helped Michigan recover from a nine billion dollar deficit. In the PEW Center’s “Grading the States 2008” study, Michigan was recognized as being one of the best managed states in the nation. A champion of education, Granholm has increased spending for Michigan public schools, toughened Michigan’s high school graduation requirements, and created the Michigan Promise Scholarship, which awards every Michigan student $4000 for successfully completing two years of secondary education after high school.

It has been reported that Granholm personally opposes abortion; however, she also does not believe that a woman’s personal medical decisions should be made by politicians. While speaking at a dinner for NARAL Pro-Choice Michigan, Granholm stated: “I am not interested in criminalizing women for making personal decisions about their bodies and their health.”

Granholm said recently she would be “an unusual candidate” for the U.S. Supreme Court because she has no judicial experience but is honored to be considered.

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