24 Years Later, Michigan Still Ignores the Whistleblower Who Tried to Save Family Court — and Survivors Like Christine Morrison Are Still Fighting

In 2001, Daniel J. Henry, the first acting director of the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission, did something extraordinary: he broke ranks and blew the whistle on a system he once helped oversee.

In a detailed letter to then–Attorney General Jennifer Granholm, Henry described a judicial landscape that had abandoned its purpose entirely. Family courts, he warned, were acting with impunity; disregarding constitutional rights, retaliating against litigants, and operating without meaningful oversight. He called for immediate reform.

It was a chance for Michigan to course-correct before decades of damage piled up. But the state did nothing. And to this very day, it continues to do nothing.

A Warning from the Inside, Ignored

Henry wasn’t an outsider looking in. As a former acting director for Judicial Tenure Commission (JTC), he knew better than almost anyone how Michigan’s courts operated behind the curtain and how the JTC was supposed to hold judges accountable. What he saw disturbed him so much that he risked his reputation to sound the alarm.

His 2001 letter to Attorney General Granholm was clear and urgent:

• Family court judges were abusing their authority and retaliating against litigants who challenged them (sound familiar?).
• Constitutional violations were routinely ignored, with parents stripped of their rights without due process (also sounds familiar)
• Accountability mechanisms were failing, with the JTC either unwilling or unable to address judicial misconduct.
• The system had become self-protective and hostile to scrutiny, allowing abuses to flourish unchecked.

Henry’s warning should have been a turning point; a moment for lawmakers, judicial leaders, and the attorney general’s office to confront systemic rot.

Instead, it was buried and forgotten.

Former Chief Justice Elizabeth A. Weaver would also try, but make little headway.

Two Decades Later, the Same System Still Stands

It’s now 2025, twenty-four years since Henry’s whistleblower letter, and the system he tried to fix is still broken.

In many ways, it’s way worse.

Every week, new stories emerge of parents bankrupted by drawn-out custody battles, children placed with or forced to see abusive parents, and judges retaliating against litigants who dare to speak publicly. Family court still operates like a closed society, shielded from public scrutiny, insulated from legislative oversight, and free from consequences, yet raking in thousands in revenue through court and child support fees.

The very patterns Henry documented are still visible today across every single county in Michigan:

• Judicial misconduct is normalized. Judges make blatantly unlawful decisions knowing the JTC rarely intervenes. Why be fair when no one is watching?
• Transparency is nonexistent. Court records are sealed, transcripts are withheld, and hearings happen in closed chambers.
• Families are destroyed in the process. Parents are alienated from their children, drained of resources, and silenced.
• The JTC remains toothless. Complaints vanish into bureaucratic voids, and bad actors remain on the bench for decades.

And most damning of all: the state can’t claim ignorance. They were warned, by a former insider, exactly what was wrong. They just chose and still choose, not to act.

Christine Morrison: The Human Face of a 24-Year Failure

If you want proof that nothing has changed, look no further than Christine Morrison.

For more than two decades, Christine has been locked in an exhausting, traumatizing fight inside Michigan’s family courts; battling a system that seems designed to break survivors rather than protect them. Her story mirrors countless others: judicial retaliation, systemic bias, manipulated custody evaluations, and an endless cycle of legal abuse that punishes those who refuse to stay silent.

Christine’s battle is living evidence of what happens when systemic warnings go unheeded. Henry’s 2001 letter described the very conditions she’s still fighting against today, and Michigan has done virtually nothing to address them.

I hope to change that.

Clutch Justice is diving into Christine’s story; not just as one woman’s nightmare, but as a window into a broken machine that’s been grinding people down for decades.

Why This Matters: The Cost of Ignored Warnings

When a whistleblower from inside the judicial watchdog agency raises the alarm, that’s not a partisan talking point; it’s a flashing red light on the dashboard of democracy. Henry’s position gave him a unique vantage point: he saw how the accountability system itself was compromised.

He tried to warn those with the power to fix it.

The fact that nothing has changed since then tells us something deeply uncomfortable: our system isn’t broken by accident. It’s broken intentionally; by design and by choice.

Michigan’s family courts function exactly as those in power want them to. They operate behind closed doors. They protect their own. They punish critics. They profit from conflict. And they face virtually no external checks.

A Call to Do What Should Have Been Done in 2001

We can’t undo the decades of harm that came from ignoring Daniel Henry’s warning. But we can refuse to let another 24 years pass without change. That means demanding:

• Mandatory transparency: Hearings, orders, and performance metrics must be public.
• Independent oversight: A new accountability body with investigative authority outside the judiciary.
• Real consequences: Judges who abuse their power must face removal, not quiet admonishment.
• Accessible appeals: Families must have realistic avenues to challenge unlawful decisions.
• Public pressure: Citizens, journalists, and advocates must keep this issue in the spotlight. Relentlessly.

Henry did his part. Christine is doing hers. The question is whether we’ll do ours.

Clutch Justice stands with the whistleblowers — past and present — and with survivors like Christine Morrison who refuse to be silenced. The question is no longer whether the system is broken. The question is whether we, the public, will keep tolerating its failure. It’s time to act.

Stay tuned.