Opinion ID: 849171
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the runco dissent

Text: Oscar Wilde once wrote that [c]onsistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. [5] If Wilde was correct, then the majority is apparently attempting to flatter me by complementing my imaginativeness when it asserts that my dissent from In re Runco, 463 Mich. 517, 620 N.W.2d 844 (2001), is not consistent with my view in the instant dissent. However, I must decline this compliment because my Runco dissent is not inconsistent with my present position, as the majority claims. In Runco, this Court entered the discipline recommended by the JTC. I did not agree with the recommendation, thinking it was insufficient and preferring the JTC minority position. See id. at 524, 620 N.W.2d 844. As a constitutional matter, before my preferred discipline could have been imposed, the appropriate action would have been for the Court to have remanded to the JTC for further consideration, as we have done in the past. See, e.g., Griffin, supra. However, because six members of this Court did not agree with me, the Court adopted the recommendation and the case was resolved. The final decision was made, and no remand was considered. Thus, because this Court was unanimous in concluding that respondent Runco deserved some level of discipline, and because the case was going to be resolved, my dissent simply stated the discipline that I believed would have been appropriate for the JTC to recommend. For me to have stated that I would have remanded would have been futile; instead, I went on record with my substantive position. My Runco dissent, then, is consistent with the instant dissent, and I am not so imaginative as the majority seems to believe. Quite imaginative, however, is the majority's idea that my voting habits are relevant to our disagreement over the meaning of art. 6, § 30(2). Though the majority and I may dispute the meaning of that constitutional provision, as explained, my Runco dissent has no effect on this case, so to suggest that my voting habits are hypocritical advances nothing.