| Beth Clement | |
| Office: | Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court |
| Term Start: | November 22, 2022 |
| Predecessor: | Bridget Mary McCormack |
| Office1: | Associate Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court |
| Appointer1: | Rick Snyder |
| Term Start1: | November 17, 2017 |
| Predecessor1: | Joan Larsen |
| Birth Name: | Elizabeth Ann Tripp |
| Birth Date: | 8 October 1977 |
| Party: | Republican |
| Spouse: | Thomas Clement |
| Children: | 4 |
| Education: | Michigan State University (BA, JD) |
Elizabeth Ann "Beth" Tripp Clement (born October 8, 1977) is an American lawyer who serves as the chief justice of Michigan since 2022. She has served as an associate justice of the Michigan Supreme Court since 2017, after being appointed by Governor Rick Snyder.
Clement graduated from Michigan State University in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, and she earned her Juris Doctor from the Michigan State University College of Law in 2002.[1] She owned and operated a private firm, Clement Law, PLLC, from 2002 to 2006, where she represented individuals and businesses primarily in the areas of family law, adoption, probate, estate planning, and criminal law.[2]
Clement served in both legislative and executive branches of the Michigan government before being appointed to the bench. Before opening her own firm, Clement served as a legislative aide to State Senate Majority Floor Leader Mike Rogers[2] and a policy advisor and legal counsel to state Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop from 2006 through 2010.[2]
In 2011, Clement joined the administration of Michigan's new governor, Rick Snyder, as deputy legal counsel.[3] In 2014, Clement was promoted to deputy chief of staff and added the position of Snyder's cabinet secretary in 2015.[3] She was promoted to Snyder's chief legal counsel in a staff shakeup by Snyder amidst the Flint water crisis in April 2016.[4]
On November 1, 2017, Justice Joan Larsen was confirmed by the United States Senate to serve as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.[5] Larsen resigned from the Michigan Supreme Court soon after and received her commission on November 8, 2017.[6] Clement was first mentioned as a potential candidate by the Gongwer News Service on November 1, 2017,[7] and Clement's appointment was leaked to the press on November 15, 2017. Snyder formally appointed Clement to the Michigan Supreme Court on November 17, 2017.[8] Clement is the third woman to serve in this seat on the Court during its eight-year term that was last up for election in 2010. Mary Beth Kelly was elected in November 2010, but announced her resignation from the Court in August 2015, to return to private practice effective October 1, 2015.[9] Following Larsen's appointment by Snyder in October 2015, Larsen was elected to fill the remaining two years of Kelly's term in November 2016.[10] After Larsen's resignation Clement served 12 months of the final 14 months of the term before she was elected to a full eight-year term in November 2018.[11]
Early in her tenure on the court, Clement faced backlash from conservative activists over her being one of two Snyder appointees (along with Justice David Viviano) to join the Court's two Democratic justices to allow a proposal that would create an independent commission to draw the state's Congressional boundaries to proceed to the November ballot.[12]
There was speculation that the Michigan Republican Party might have not endorsed Clement or nominated another candidate in her place. (Though candidates for the Michigan Supreme Court run on the non-partisan section of the ballot, the major two political parties nominate candidates for each seat)[13] Clement was booed at the Michigan Republican Convention in August 2018 when her name was brought up for nomination for a full term, but she was nominated for a full term along with fellow incumbent Justice Kurtis T. Wilder.[14] Clement later said she faced "bullying" and unusual "outside pressure" to vote to keep the redistricting proposal off the ballot.[15] Clement's name and picture were even kept off literature distributed by volunteers before the 2018 mid-term elections, a decision a Michigan GOP spokesman said was driven by the fact that some volunteers felt uncomfortable supporting Clement.[15] Despite this opposition, Clement was the only person nominated by the Michigan Republican Party to win a statewide election in 2018.
Clement resides in East Lansing, Michigan with her husband and four children.[2] [16] Her husband, Thomas P. Clement, has served as general counsel to the Michigan Supreme Court since May 2016.[7]
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