The Traverse City Record Eagle broke the news this morning.  H/T Michigan Legal Blog, which also notes the replacement is likely to be Court of Appeals Judge Alton T. Davis:

WEAVER TO RESIGN

Justice ends 16 years on Supreme Court

BY BRIAN McGILLIVARY bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Justice Elizabeth Weaver, of Glen Arbor, whose frequent battles with fellow Republican justices over the past decade exposed deep political and personal rifts on the Michigan Supreme Court, plans to resign today.

Weaver, 69, decided to step down after she secured Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s promise to appoint a northern Michigan jurist to replace her on the state’s highest court.

“I have done all that I can do as a justice and now believe that I can be of most use as a citizen in helping further the critically needed reforms of the judicial system,” Weaver said in an exclusive interview with the Record-Eagle. “Now I will be able to work and speak freely.”

Weaver said she would not have resigned without Granholm’s agreement to select a northern Michigan replacement. A justice from northern Michigan brings independence and a different perspective to a court currently dominated by justices from the Detroit to Lansing beltway, she said.

“I think I’m proof of the pudding; I’m independent,” she said. “That independent-thinking judge is not agenda-driven and does not hold to political party lines.”
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