Fidelity

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#0000BF" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="044005a0exvipq.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFCC33" FACE="Copperplate Gothic Bold" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Eastside Republican Club"><U><B>Home</B></U></A><B>  </B><B> </B></FONT><B>  | </B><B> </B><B> </B><B>  </B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Copperplate Gothic Bold" ><B>Eastside Republican Club</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="erc_meeting_dates.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Events"><U><B>Events</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="eastside_republican_review_summary.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ERC Review"><U><B>ERC Review</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="michigan_s_13th_district.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Congressional District News"><U><B>Congressional District News</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="civic___governmental_links.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="erc_officers.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About Us"><U><B>About Us</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Fidelity</B></div> <div> <A HREF="link_to_michigan_gop.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michigan Republicans"><U><B><IMG SRC="05358580.gif" border=0 width="88" height="88" ALT="Michigan GOP" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.gophouse.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.gophouse.com/"><U><I><B>Michigan House GOP</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="pledge.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Grosse Pointes Role in Pledge Controvers"><U><I><B>Pte's Role in Pledge Flap</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="erc_testimonials.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="What Theyre Saying About Us"><U><I><B>Read what they've said about us</B></I></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="erc_meeting_dates.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Events"><U><B><IMG SRC="81b871f0.gif" border=0 width="135" height="31" ALT=">>Events" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div>  <A NAME="top_of_page"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <U>Maura Co</U><U>rrigan Stumps for </U><U>Virtue</U></div> <div> <B>Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice</B></div> <div> <B>Places Emphasis on “Fidelity” at ERC's May Forum</B></div> <div> Going to the root of today's sliding culture, Michigan Supreme Court <A HREF="http://courts.michigan.gov/supremecourt/AboutCourt/biography.htm#chief" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://courts.michigan.gov/supremecourt/"><U>Chief Justice Maura D. Corrigan</U></A> landed squarely on the responsibility of each citizen to exercise “fidelity.”<A HREF="http://courts.michigan.gov/supremecourt/AboutCourt/biography.htm#chief" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://courts.michigan.gov/supremecourt/"><U><IMG SRC="9b796080.jpg" border=0 width="150" height="264" ALT="Chief Justice Corrigan" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="8" VSPACE="4"></U></A></div> <div> Fidelity, or the lack of it, is what has given Michigan its present child-welfare crisis, according to Corrigan. “The child-welfare crisis is a matter of life and death. Broken homes result in broken lives. I wish we had an Orange Alert level for this problem, as well,” she said.</div> <div> Her talk on what she called an “old-fashioned virtue” was the focus of the May 20, 2003, ERC Forum at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial in Grosse Pointe Farms.</div> <div> Corrigan explained that in her job, she is responsible for administering an oath to new officeholders. She stated that she, herself, must maintain fidelity to the oath she took as a Supreme Court Justice. For others, especially those in the military, Corrigan pointed out that fidelity might require the sacrifice of one's own life in defense of his country.</div> <div> <B>Cultural Changes</B></div> <div> Reflecting on cultural changes, she observed that infidelity first resulted in a move from a culture of marriage to a culture of divorce. Now it has moved even further. She said, “At least in the case of divorce, the parents of children are known.” But today, she said, “We have a culture of 'one-night stands' in which neither the mother nor the children are able to identify the father without DNA testing.”</div> <div> Corrigan cited the fact that in the U.S., one-third of all births are now out of wedlock. Consequently, about one-half of children in Michigan's foster care system have parents in a nonpaying status, according to Corrigan. On a local basis, she cited the fact that out-of-control behavior has resulted in a child-welfare caseload for Wayne County which exceeds that of many entire States.</div> <div> Because the existing Michigan system is not geared to handle the burgeoning caseload, Corrigan said the State's compliance with Federal child-welfare rules is now taking longer than permitted by law. She said that Michigan has been notified that if, by September 2003, it is not in compliance with established standards, it faces the loss of $8 million in Federal funding.</div> <div> <B>Progress </B><B>Reported</B></div> <div> In spite of the burden she expressed for abandoned children and families, Corrigan was enthusiastic, stating,<IMG SRC="9b8e8410.jpg" border=0 width="232" height="321" ALT="Corrigan shares a gift recently given to her by a family member in honor of her upcoming birthday--a life-sized cutout of Pres. George W. Bush" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="8" VSPACE="6"> “I love to go to work everyday!” Noting progress in the area of locating children who have fallen through cracks, she said there is a “pitched battle being fought here in Michigan to find missing children lost in the State-run foster care system.” With a renewed emphasis on fidelity to their responsibility to protect the 28,000 children who are wards of the state, she reported that Michigan trial judges since October 2002 have been responsible for finding 406 previously missing children.</div> <div> Corrigan acknowledged that computerization, expediting court dockets, and the President's faith-based initiative offer a partial solution, as does streamlining of adoption. But, her emphasis was moving toward the ultimate solution which, she stated, was in the hands of Michigan citizens. In this battle she said, “We are the enemy--it is us!” She warned parents looking for a quick way out of responsibility, “When your marriage breaks up, the Friend of the Court becomes your partner!”</div> <div> In a glimpse into her own family life, the Justice shared with the group a gift recently given to her by a family member in honor of her upcoming birthday--a life-sized cutout of President George W. Bush.</div> <div> <B>Corrigan's Professional Life</B></div> <div> Corrigan was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court in November 1998 for an eight-year term and was elected by her colleagues to a two-year term as Chief Justice in January 2001. In January 2003, she was reelected as Chief Justice and will serve in that position through 2004.</div> <div> She graduated <I>magna cum laude</I> from Marygrove College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1969, and cum laude from the University of Detroit Law School with a Juris Doctor in 1973.</div> <div> Corrigan served as a law clerk to the Honorable John Gillis of the Michigan Court of Appeals, worked as an assistant prosecuting attorney in Wayne County from 1974 to 1979, and was appointed Chief of Appeals in the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. In 1986, she was promoted to Chief Assistant United States Attorney, the first woman to hold that position.</div> <div> The Justice has won many awards for her professional achievements, including honorary doctorates of laws from Northern Michigan University and University of Detroit-Mercy, the U.S. Department of Justice Director's Award for Outstanding Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and the Federal Bar Association's Leonard Gilman Award as the 1989 Outstanding Practitioner of Criminal Law.</div> <div> Corrigan is the widow of Wayne State University Distinguished Professor of Law Joseph D. Grano and is the mother of Megan and Daniel.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="#top_of_page" TITLE="Fidelity"><U>back to top</U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>