LANSING – Macomb Chief Circuit Judge David Viviano will become Michigan’s 108th Supreme Court Justice after he was named Wednesday by Governor Rick Snyder to succeed disgraced former Justice Diane Hathaway.

Viviano, 41, was praised by Snyder for being a “rule of law” judge – “which is critically important” – and for playing a major role in advancing innovation in the Macomb court.

While his son, Antonio, explored the stage with a toy car, Viviano called the appointment a “tremendous honor” for himself and his family.

“I very much look forward to earning the respect and admiration of my new colleagues on the bench,” Viviano said.

“I am committed, as the governor said, to the rule of law. I do believe in the separation of powers, I believe it is a judge’s role to fairly interpret the law and to defer to the policy choices that were made by the Legislature, by the policymakers,” he said.

Viviano’s appointment takes effect on Friday. He will be on the court when it begins to hear arguments on Tuesday, March 5. With his appointment, the court, technically a non-partisan body, will have a 5-2 Republican majority over Democratic members.

Hathaway was a Democratic nominee to the court when she was elected in 2008.

The court itself wasted no time in adding Viviano to its webpage, posting the now most junior member’s photo and biography shortly after Snyder made the appointment official at 3 p.m.

The appointment came nearly five weeks after Hathaway left the bench, officially retiring before she pleaded guilty to a federal charge of fraud. She faces sentencing later this spring for her role in organizing a property swap of houses she and her husband owned with her step-children so she could qualify for a short-sale of her Detroit-area house.

However, at least two weeks before she left the court, Hathaway had said she would not participate in court matters.

Asked about the scandal, Viviano said as a lawyer one’s reputation and integrity is most important and “when you lose that, you can never get it back. I think I’ve built a reputation of integrity and fairness in the work that I’ve done.”

That was one of the things Snyder took into consideration in his appointment, Viviano said, and one thing he promised in his performance going forward.

Though he also said, “Sometimes things happen that you wish wouldn’t happen,” referring to Hathaway and the scandal.

Viviano will have to run in the November 2014 election to complete Hathaway’s term, which ends in 2016. And he said he would run in both elections (presuming, of course, he wins in 2014).

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