(left)judge Plawecki, (r) Richard Bernstein and ex-Justice McCromack
Lawyer and University of Michigan Regent Mark Bernstein and former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Bridget McCormack are accusing a Dearborn judge of antisemtism.
In a column published Monday in the Detroit News, Bernstein and McCormack take aim at 20th District Court of Dearborn Heights Judge Mark Plawecki, who published a column in the Detroit Legal News and Arab American News.
They write that Plawecki's column "demands attention and condemnation."
Bernstein and McCormack write:
In his column, Judge Plawecki blames his failure to obtain the nomination of the Michigan Democratic Party for Michigan Supreme Court in 2016 on a conspiracy led by "[Mark] Bernstein and his lackey MSC Justice Bridget McCormick” (sic) who “warn[ed] prominent trial lawyers not to give money to Plawecki."
Judge Plawecki further alleges, without any evidence, that Bernstein opposed him because "Bernstein is a significant Benjamin Netanyahu waterboy vis-à-vis the Michigan Democratic Party, and the last thing the right-wing Israeli government wants is a statewide elected official (in any state) who has a not only more than cursory understanding of its terrorist origins but is willing to state publicly the truth about Israel’s more than 75 years of political and economic chicanery.” His misinformation devolves from there.
Nothing in Judge Plawecki’s column is true, but his rant reveals his alarming antisemitism.
Here's part of Plawecki's column that ran Jan. 5 in the Arab American News titled "Unmentionable truths:"
Michigan Democratic U.S Senate candidate Hill Harper has claimed that he was offered $20 million by an American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) member to drop out of said race and run instead against U.S Representative Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress. Condor has never met nor, until he announced his candidacy, heard of Mr. Harper, but I have little reason to believe he is not telling the truth. (Deadline Detroit editor's note: Plawecki never explains who "Condor" is)
Back in September 2015, then Governor Snyder appointed former Antonin Scalia law clerk Joan Larsen to the Michigan Supreme Court to replace Justice Mary Beth Kelly, who left the Court in mid-term. Condor immediately sprang into action, trying to convince, in descending order, three gifted legal minds to run against the professor who had never practiced law in a Michigan courtroom: 33rd District Judge Michael McNally, medical malpractice trial lawyer extraordinaire Judith Susskind and Third Circuit Judge David Allen. All three declined, and each told Condor to run. Reluctantly, I started to campaign, and for eight months worked my way into being the Democratic nominee against Larsen (MSC candidates are officially non-partisan, but both major parties nominate folks at (then) late summer political conventions).
I have little reason to believe that Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Hill Harper is not telling the truth about the AIPAC member’s offer.
Labor unions, who make up a significant part of the Democratic coalition, unanimously endorsed me, but several of their leaders advised that the key person’s backing needed was Mark (son of Sam) Bernstein, a self-promoting attorney with next to no trial experience. In a cordial December 2015 phone conversation, Bernstein, whose brother Richard had just been elected to the MSC in 2014, told me that because the GOP nominated justices “were treating my brother nicely” he was going to remain neutral and not be part of challenging an incumbent justice. I was curiously disappointed (curious because Mark Bernstein was and is a Democratic University of Michigan Regent), but calculated that since he was just one individual, and if I worked hard to get the endorsement of the umbrella trial lawyers’ group Michigan Association for Justice, I could still mount a formidable challenge.
How naïve was Condor! I soon found out that even after the MAJ endorsement Bernstein and his lackey MSC Justice Bridget McCormick were warning prominent trial lawyers “not to give money to Plawecki” and the many who have business relationships with the Bernstein Law Firm (i.e., do the legal work for unsuspecting 1-800-Call Sam litigants; Bernstein receives a hefty referral fee), felt sufficiently intimidated by the threat and complied.
What was the real reason behind the threat? Condor much later learned that Bernstein is a significant Benjamin Netanyahu waterboy vis-à-vis the Michigan Democratic Party, and the last thing the right-wing Israeli government wants is a statewide elected official (in any state) who has a not only more than cursory understanding of its terrorist origins, but is willing to state publicly the truth about Israel’s more than 75 years of political and economic chicanery.
