Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society

1St Floor Hall Of Justice 925 W. Ottawa Street
Lansing, Michigan 48915
United States

Website:	www.micourthistory.org
Phone:	(517) 373-7589
Fax:	(517) 373-7592

Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society's profile was created using:

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Summary

Description

The Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society, a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation was founded in 1988 by then-Chief Justice DOROTHY COMSTOCK RILEY. Our mission is to collect and preserve and display documents, records and memorabilia relating to the Michigan Supreme Court and the other courts of Michigan, and to promote the study of history of Michigan's one court of justice, and to increase public awareness of Michigan's legal heritage. We sponsor and conduct historical research, we provide speakers and educational materials for students, we sponsor and provide publications, portraits, memorials, special events and projects all consistent with our mission.

Over the past 17 years we have produced several publications including the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Reference Guide, which contains biographies and a picture of each of the court's first 103 justices; A Brief History of the Michigan Supreme Court booklet that is geared toward high school students interested in the history of the Court; the Index of Special Sessions, which includes up-to-date indices of all special sessions held by the Michigan Supreme Court since 1836, and list the dates, the honorees, the speakers of each of those sessions; and our high school and junior high lesson plans, which provide teachers with two-week units on the history and organization of the Michigan Supreme Court. I'm pleased to announce that this year alone we have distributed over 30 of these free lesson plans and packets to the teachers throughout the state of Michigan. And finally, our quarterly newsletter, The Society Update. We continue to distribute all of these publications and copies are available for anyone interested in learning more about the history of the Supreme Court.

In addition to the hard copy publications, the Historical Society hosts a website, www.micourthistory.org on which the Court's articles, vignettes and other information about the history of the court.

The Society also hosts special events throughout the year to celebrate the Court's history. This year, in April, we hosted our annual membership luncheon in Detroit. Nearly 150 members and friends joined us to hear about the many sides of Justice JOHN VOELKER. In May, Your Honors hosted a special session in this courtroom in which the portrait of the Honorable Justice THEODORE SOURIS was dedicated to the Court. You can view it; it's downstairs hanging.