New Justice Alton T. Davis of Grayling, a 1960s Petoskey disc jockey who became a well-respected Circuit and Michigan Court of Appeals Court judge, is a rarity in the 174-year history of the Michigan Supreme Court.

Politically, Democrat Davis is the only justice to be "nominated" by a retiring justice of another party, in this case Republican Justice Betty Weaver of Glen Arbor, who dramatically orchestrated last week's extraordinary deal in which she retired on condition that Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm appoint fellow northerner Davis.

It was an astounding move by a Republican who as recently as June said she would seek reelection as an independent, knowing that her party was not about to re-nominate her.

Geographically, Davis is only one of a half dozen justices ever from the northern Lower Peninsula.

Of the 105 Michigan Supreme Court justices so far, eight have been from the Upper Peninsula. The six from the northern Lower Peninsula were from well north of Clare.

Forty-five of all justices so far have been from either the Detroit or Lansing areas, as are all current justices except Davis. That's a point raised by Weaver in noting that selecting justices by districts is among reforms she seeks in the "deeply flawed" way justices are selected.

Granted, the Traverse City area uniquely was Judiciary North in the 1980s and 1990s when it had Republicans Weaver, Robert P. Griffin (a former U.S. Senator and key figure in prompting Richard Nixon to resign after Watergate), and James H. Brickley (former Detroit councilman, U.S. attorney, university president, and lieutenant governor.)

Historical aspects are interesting, but what counts are qualifications. Davis' credentials abound. He's former president of the Michigan Judges Association, longtime chief judge of the 46th Circuit Court, and chairman of a committee of the State Task Force to Reform the State Judicial System.

Nonetheless, it's understandable that the Michigan GOP bristled at a Republican justice handing to Democrats a majority on a court that will have a decisive role in deciding post-Census redistricting for the Legislature and congressional districts.

As for what Weaver says about Davis being a bridge-builder, Michigan GOP spokeswoman Jennifer Hoff called him a "politician in a robe...(a) partisan hack."

How hyped was Granholm about the Weaver-Davis deal? So much so that on Friday she devoted her weekend radio address to it.

Granholm said, "Justice Weaver often said that her guiding principle is to 'do right and fear not.' And she operated by that principle. Justice Weaver has been recognized many times for her tireless efforts on behalf of children. Thanks to her hard work, Michigan has a nationally recognized juvenile justice system. She was also a leader in creating and expanding the state's drug court system. ...

"I know that Justice Davis, like Justice Weaver, will also 'do right and fear not. ...Born and raised in northern Michigan, Justice Davis has established himself as an advocate for all people regardless of their social or economic standing."

Davis is northerner of the day on the court but there were earlier others of note.

Michigan's first U.P. justice was Claudius B. Grant of Marquette (1890-1909), an officer in the Civil War, prosecuting attorney, and circuit judge. Another long-term U.P. justice from Marquette was John W. Stone (1919-22), who earlier was a congressman from the Grand Rapids area.

A shining legal light of the north was Paul L. Adams of Sault Ste. Marie, 1958-62 state attorney general and 1962-73 Supreme Court justice.

Although five governors have been Supreme Court justices (Epaphroditus Ransom, Alpheus Felch, Harry F. Kelly, John B. Swainson, and G. Mennen Williams), 1957-59 Justice John Voelker of Ishpeming is atop my list of most memorable justices.

Some of his opinions had lines that would have been fodder for dime store novels. In ruling against police who raided Battle Creek area nudists, he wrote they "paraded them like plucked chickens before clicking cameras."

Voelker, writing under the pen name of Robert Traver, authored several books, including his 1958 "Anatomy a Murder" that was made into a Marquette-based movie still playing periodically on the tube.

The downstate presiding judge at the central trial was a "Judge Weaver," played with a flair by famed Capitol Hill attorney Joseph Welsh. He's best known as legal counsel in the Army-Senator Joseph McCarthy hearings whose impassioned censure of McCarthy ("Have you no sense of decency, Sir, at long last??h) hastened the downfall of McCarthy.

In "Anatomy," Judge Weaver, miffed to find that the Army officer charged with murder had been taken downstate without his knowledge to be examined by an Army psychiatrist, said from the bench:

"I've always heard that this Upper Peninsula of our fair state was a queer place. If it's customary here to allow a man charged with first degree murder to wander about at will, I don't suppose it behooves an outsider to point out that the law makes no provision for such quaint liberalism."

The fictional Judge Weaver also referred to one of his traits that presciently reminds of a TV ad used in the last real Michigan Supreme Court election. The “Sleeping Judge” ad is credited with bringing about the rarity of defeating an incumbent justice -- Clifford Taylor. In the movie, the judge said: “While I might appear to doze occasionally, you’d find that I keep one eye open for tricky lawyers.”

It's too much to expect that new Justice Davis' writings will be as much fun to read as ex-justice Voelker's.

George Weeks, a member of the Michigan Journalism Hall of fame, for 22 years was the political columnist for The Detroit News and previously with UPI as Lansing Bureau Chief and foreign editor in Washington. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.