"The Beard Grows, But The Head Does Not Grow Wiser."
"Lawyers work hard and, like us, they're human, many of them."-Dick Cavett
“A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.” - H. L. Mencken
"I tell you, I'll consult my lawyer. And if he advises me to do it, I'll get a new lawyer."-Groucho Marx 
"We are all here for a spell, get all the good laughs you can."
There is a lot of interesting and bizarre stuff for sale on eBay. I have previously written about finding matchbooks used by Wayne County judges in their election campaigns. I am interested in Detroit history generally, and Detroit legal history as a subset of that.
So, what do I find in my searches but the above item, listed at $19.99 and still available. The listing, entitled "1978 Press Photo Susan D. Borman Judge Wayne County, actually consists of 2 items. One is a very nice studio grade picture, as advertised, of then Detroit Recorders Court Judge Susan Borman. Back in 1978, Detroit Recorders Court heard criminal felony cases arising in the City of Detroit. That has changed since, and there is a Criminal Division of Wayne County Circuit Court that hears felony cases from the whole County. In 1978, Wayne County Circuit Court heard civil and domestic matters for the whole of Wayne County, and criminal cases from that part of the county outside the city of Detroit.
Judge Borman, who had served on the Recorders Court bench since 1972, decided to run for the Circuit Court bench in 1978. And, this is covered in the second item of the eBay listing, which is a July 12, 1978, Detroit Free Press article reporting that the Detroit Bar Association, through its public advisory committee, had rated Judge Borman as "unqualified" for election to the Circuit Court. The entire committee of 520 members evaluated judicial candidates on their legal ability, trial experience, integrity, honesty, judicial temperance, health and reputation. Judge Borman was the only candidate rated as "Unqualified".
At the time of the election, Susan Borman had been a licensed attorney for 9 years and a trial judge for 6 years.
So many questions. Why would anyone save these items for 45 years? Why was Susan Borman rated as Unqualified, with all her experience? What evaluation committee has 520 members? The item was listed by the Historicimages-store, which has sold over a quarter million items on eBay. No way to contact a seller that might have personal knowledge.
By the way, she won the election, by the way, and served continuously on the Circuit Court until she could no longer run, sometime around 2014. I appeared before her, many, many, many times.
I am a proud member of the Detroit Bar Association and serve on the Judicial Evaluation Committee, which has a lot less than 520 members. I have never had to rate Susan Borman as a judicial candidate.
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