Berman: Does Repeating One Phrase Two Years Ago Make a Judge Anti-Semitic?

Markey is competing against Oakland County Circuit Judge Colleen O'Brien for the nomination. Markey, an appeals court judge based in Grand Rapids for 18 years, sees her newfound notoriety as an effort to boil down her career to a reductionist's special election sauce: a mixture of verbal slip and upcoming nominating convention that may become politically toxic, if enough people swallow it, even if not exactly true.

I agree with her, Berman says.

The anecdote, as recounted publicly last week in the Lansing political service MIRS, dated to a 2011 luncheon for Markey's colleague, Richard Bandstra. At that event, MIRS said Markey told a story about Bandstra's penchant for raiding the candy jars of judicial assistants — without ever refilling the jars. One assistant had used the phrase "Jew the price down," an expression Markey repeated to the august group of appeals court judges.