- Welcome to "American Black Journal."

I'm Stephen Henderson.

Michigan Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden emerged victorious in the recent election to retain her seat on the state's highest court.

She was initially appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2023 to fill a seat that was vacated by retiring Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack.

Bolden is the first Black woman on the State's Supreme Court, and she is currently its youngest member.

I sat down with her for a wide-ranging conversation.

Justice Kyra Harris Bolden, first of all, congratulations.

And of course, it is great to have you here with us on "American Black Journal."

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Yeah.

So Democrats in our state had a lot of contentious, I guess, races, and lost the presidential contest.

There was a kind of a counter trend on some of the lower-ballot races, the Senate race and the Supreme Court, where Democrats will enjoy a larger majority than they have.

Tell me what that means from your chair.

- Well, my perspective is, well, my... First of all, my race is nonpartisan, so- - It's nonpartisan, right?

(indistinct), right?

- So, and I'm in a nonpartisan job.

I think some takeaways from, at least from my race, I think people should think about was I ran this race before, right?

I ran in 2022.

And even though I ran my race in 2022 and lost, I came within two percentage points of an incumbent.

And so I think that we were able to build upon a lot of that great work that we've done, and I think it reflected in our numbers for this race in receiving over 60% of the vote.

And I actually also received the most votes total out of any Michigan Supreme Court race in history.

And so I think that's a testament to the work we've done around the state of Michigan for the last two years, and people recognizing the great work that the Michigan Supreme Court is doing.

- Yeah, yeah.

So talk about that two years.

You were appointed to a seat by Governor Gretchen Whitmer when the Chief Justice resigned.

Tell us about the work of the Michigan Supreme Court and the things that you feel you've been able to accomplish that you can show voters and say, "Hey, I should still be here."

- Yeah, so I think, again, we did a really great job of making the case before I was even able to be on the court, getting really close to having the job.

But I did fall short.

Thankful for Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack, who stepped down two years into her eight-year term, and thankful to Governor Gretchen Whitmer for appointing me to that position.

And I have to say it was a whirlwind.

In 2022, I was pregnant with my first child and had my child in the middle of the campaign.

And so starting the job on January 1st, 2023, I had around a five-month-old and starting this new job.

But in my first year, I was able to author three majority opinions, one unanimous.

And I think the people of the state of Michigan recognized very quickly that, one, I was getting up to speed very quickly, and two, I was well-respected on the core to be able to do that.

- Yeah.

- And to date, I have issued, or author eight majority opinions.

And so I'm right along with my fellow justices as far as workload and contributing to our court and our team.

I'm also liaison to our treatment courts, as well as our family, our child welfare task force.

And so we're doing a lot of great work at the Michigan Supreme Court, and I'm honored to be a part of it.

- Yeah.

Just for context, authoring eight majority opinions in a term, that's quite a bit.

I mean, that is- - That's quite a bit.

- Yeah, that's not a small number.

- It is not.

- What do you attribute that to?

Talk about the work with your colleagues and the trust and the faith they obviously have in you to speak for the court.

- And that's exactly right.

I think a lot of people think that you just write it and people join it and it goes out.

There's an immense amount of discussion and back and forth, and there are times where if you write something a certain way that's not reflective of the majority, someone may just drop off and they might be a dissent and you may lose your majority.

So it's about writing in a way that represents the majority of the court, truly.

And it takes a lot of speaking with one another and working together.

It's a very, very collaborative court, unlike some of the lower courts may have experience.

So, I actually really enjoy that part of the job.

But yes, in order to offer and maintain the majority eight times and being the least senior member on the court is actually quite a feat.

And I'm honored that the other justices have trusted me to be able to do that.

- Yeah, yeah.

So, let's talk about the next four years.

Your next term, your first full term as an elected member of the court, what kinds of things are you looking forward to?

What kinds of goals, I guess, are you setting for yourself?

- So, yes, so I have four years, I have to finish the term vacated by Bridget Mary McCormack.

- That's right, right.

- Yes, and a usual term is eight years.

- Eight years.

That's right, not quite a full term.

- So not quite a full term, but we're getting there in 2028, I'll be back.

But you know, the goals that I have for myself are really to learn more of the intricacies, the processes, and procedure of the Michigan Supreme Court.

I think that that's a huge part of the job, and it takes time to absorb all of that.

I think, obviously making good decisions on behalf of Michiganders, but two, just trying to figure out how I myself can make it easier for the next person coming after me.

You know, what I went through was quite a feat, and there are reasons why I'm the first Black woman to ever serve on the Michigan Supreme Court, right?

And we have to be honest about the systemic barriers that are in place.

- Absolutely.

- And so, it's important to identify what those barriers are in order to remove them to make it easier for the next person after me.

Because- - What are some of those... What do some of those barriers look like?

Talk about those.

- Yeah, so I won't be too explicit, but I will just say sometimes I ask questions about why things are done a certain way, and the answer typically has been, "Well, that's how we've always done it."

(Stephen laughing) - Right.

- Right?

And with myself being the 14th woman to ever serve, the first Black woman, but only the 14th woman, and only the sixth Black person to serve.

- Right.

- There are things that I... And honestly being the youngest person, right, to ever serve, I may see things in a different way and how we can utilize the court in different ways that hasn't been done before.

And so those are the types of things that I raise and maybe push back on a little bit because we shouldn't be just... We shouldn't just be doing things because that's how it's always been done.

- Right.

- We should be innovative and working to serve all of Michigan.

- Yeah, and when you do that, when you raise these issues and say, "Maybe we ought to think about that differently," talk about the reception you get from the rest of the court, from the other justices.

- Yeah.

Actually, this is a really great court, and I'm very thankful to Chief Justice Clement, who really, even if that's the initial answer, there's always additional conversation.

And I feel that my colleagues currently serving on the court are generally receptive to new ideas, new ways of doing things.

We have a lot of discussions and I feel like we're going in the right direction.

But again, change is difficult, especially for an institution such as the Michigan Supreme Court.

So we're working hard, and I'm working with my colleagues to, again, identify some of those barriers.

- Yeah, yeah.

When you think about... Back to the opinions that you've written this term, the eight majority opinions, does one stand out?

I mean, I know you're not really at liberty to discuss issues and things like that, but talk about one or two that jump out at you as really important or significant.

- Yeah, so one of my opinions, I believe, has been cited close to 100 times having to do with criminal sentencing, which I think has been very impactful and important.

And honestly, I think all the opinions we write are impactful.

I struggle because I... Well, things be important to me and I may be proud of it.

- Yeah, right.

- Sometimes, people are just like, "That's not the sexy issue that we wanted you to talk about."

- Right.

(Stephen laughing) - But I also authored a majority opinion concerning pro bono fees, which, again, is not super interesting to some people, but for those recipients for pro bono work, I think it's very impactful.

And so those are the two that I would point to as far as the ones that I think are just really significant and ones that I enjoyed really working on.

But just for context, we receive about 200 applications for appeal per month.

We have to review because as you know, not every case is heard at the Michigan Supreme Court, we choose which cases we hear.

But in order to choose which cases we hear, we have to review all the application.

- You're gonna look through them, right.

- And so it's a very robust job and a lot of information, but I really, really enjoy it.