Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Young has been hired to assist Michigan State University amidst the ongoing Larry Nassar sex scandal, but at the same time he is separately fighting a lawsuit seeking the removal of the MSU board members.
In what appears to be a conflict of interest, Young will serve as legal counsel to interim MSU President John Engler while also serving as a special assistant attorney general seeking to protect the MSU trustees from getting booted from office. Young is representing Gov. Rick Snyder in the suit, filed by a Republican campaign operative, that is trying to compel the governor to conduct an inquiry that would determine if the board should be ousted due to “gross neglect of duty.”
Citing the Michigan Constitution, the suit by Dennis Lennox of Cheboygan County is petitioning the Court of Claims to issue a writ of mandamus that could put Snyder in the position of holding a hearing on the board’s conduct, much as former Gov. Jennifer Granholm held a 2008 hearing to consider the removal of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from office. A court hearing is set in the Snyder case for Tuesday.
Michigan State announced yesterday that Young will be brought in to aid Engler with the ongoing investigations in the aftermath of the Nassar scandal while longtime MSU legal counsel, Bob Noto, is stepping aside.
“I am pleased to assist the university in addressing its multiple challenges,” said Young, an adjunct professor at the MSU College of Law. “President Engler has made it clear that MSU is cooperating fully with the various investigations and that will be an ongoing priority for me.”
While Snyder fights the legal attempt to make him, essentially, put the eight elected trustees on trial, several prominent members of the legal community have disagreed whether the governor has the constitutional authority to bounce the board. Lennox’s lawsuit asserts that Snyder has “a duty” to launch an inquiry.
“The lawsuit is about accountability and seeks to compel an inquiry, presided over by Gov. Snyder, as the court can’t order removal of the Board of Trustees,” said Lennox’s attorney, Jeffrey Hank of East Lansing. “It is in part a reaction to the merry-go-round of deflection of responsibility as well as the callous attitude of MSU trustees toward the (Nassar) victims. It is also an important question of constitutional jurisprudence that is unsettled: What, if any, duty does the governor have?”
Meanwhile, state House Speaker Tom Leonard (R-DeWitt) said last month that he’d like to see the entire university board resign or be impeached by the Legislature.
Young first made his way onto the Supreme Court in 1999 when he was appointed to a vacancy by Engler. He served on the high court for 18 years, including three terms as chief justice, until he retired last year. The conservative jurist launched a U.S. Senate campaign as a Republican then abandoned that effort a few months later in January.
Young is among a group of longtime Engler allies, including the former governor’s chief of staff and press secretary, brought on board to deal with the MSU investigations launched by the NCAA and the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.
Nassar, a sports doctor at MSU, was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison for sexually assaulting young female gymnasts and collecting child pornography on his computer. The issue now is whether various Michigan State officials enabled that behavior by ignoring complaints from his victims.
