Detroit voters have elected Kahlilia Davis to the city's 36th District Court — but the former judge cannot take the bench. Davis drew nearly 84,000 votes in the November 3 election even though the Michigan Supreme Court suspended her from judicial office for six years in 2023, a suspension that runs until 2029, WDIV ClickOnDetroit reported on Saturday, November 7.
Source: WDIV ClickOnDetroit (Local 4), Nov. 7, 2026
The result leaves one of Michigan's busiest local courts in an unusual position: the winner of its election is barred from exercising the powers of the office she was elected to. The 36th District Court's chief judge said the court will seek guidance from the State Court Administrative Office on what happens next, and the State Court Administrative Office itself declined to comment, according to WDIV.
How a suspended judge ended up on the ballot
Davis's path back onto the ballot went through the courts themselves. A judge ruled in 2024 that Michigan's secretary of state should keep Davis off the ballot. In 2026, Davis sued the secretary of state's office to challenge that decision, and another judge ruled that she could run and ordered the state to recheck her filings, WDIV reported. A June 2026 ruling reported by Deadline Detroit likewise held that she was eligible to run despite the suspension, overturning the earlier decision that would have kept her off the ballot.
That legal distinction — between being allowed to run for an office and being allowed to serve in it — is the heart of the story. The Michigan Supreme Court's own 2023 order anticipated exactly this situation: if Davis were elected or appointed to judicial office during her suspension, she would, in the court's words, nevertheless be debarred from exercising the power and prerogatives of the office until at least the expiration of the suspension.
Source: Michigan Supreme Court order, In re Kahlilia Y. Davis, SC 161134 (June 23, 2023)
Why the Supreme Court suspended her
The Michigan Supreme Court imposed the six-year suspension without pay on June 23, 2023, in the case In re Kahlilia Y. Davis, SC 161134, acting on the recommendation of the state's Judicial Tenure Commission in Formal Complaint No. 101. The court adopted in part the commission's findings of repeated, deliberate misconduct; it rejected as moot the commission's recommendation to remove her from office because her term had already expired on January 1, 2023.
Source: Michigan Supreme Court order, In re Kahlilia Y. Davis, SC 161134 (June 23, 2023)
WDIV summarised the conduct behind the suspension this way: Davis was found to have mishandled contempt cases, intentionally disconnected courtroom recording equipment, used an unauthorized handicap parking placard, and threatened colleagues with Bible verses. The Judicial Tenure Commission's case described an interim suspension that began on June 17, 2020, followed by the six-year conditional suspension — a combined period under suspension running to June 23, 2029, during which she is prohibited from holding judicial office.
Davis was first elected to the 36th District Court in 2016, Detroit Free Press columnist M.L. Elrick reported earlier this year in coverage of her comeback attempt. Her original term expired at the start of 2023, eight months before the Supreme Court's final order — which is why the justices dealt with her case as a suspension barring future service rather than a removal.
Voters say they did not know
Some Detroit voters told WDIV on Friday that the election was the first time they learned Davis was suspended and could not serve — even though they had already voted for her. “They didn't advertise that,” Detroit voter Jeffrey Williams told the station. “They should have let us know that she was suspended and wouldn't be able to serve as a judge — and then we could have made a decision whether we wanted to vote for somebody else,” Williams said.
Another voter, James Stephens, told WDIV that politics no longer surprised him — until he was told which judge was in question. Asked whether knowing more would have changed his vote, Stephens answered directly: “Oh, yeah, no doubt.” WDIV's reporting on Friday found voters saying the same thing in different words: the information would have changed their choice, and it reached them only after the ballots were cast.
Michigan's courts have treated eligibility to run and eligibility to serve as two separate questions. A 2026 ruling let Davis stand for election; the Supreme Court's 2023 suspension order separately bars her from exercising judicial power until 2029. Detroit voters decided the first question on November 3. The second was decided three years earlier.
Why it matters for Detroit — and what happens next
The 36th District Court is where Detroit's everyday justice happens: it is the city's district court, handling the high-volume matters — including the landlord-tenant cases that featured in the contempt disputes in Davis's disciplinary record — that bring ordinary residents, landlords, tenants and drivers into a courtroom. A seat won by someone who cannot sit is not an abstract problem for the people with cases on that court's docket, and it is now a practical problem for the court's administration.
What happens next rests with the State Court Administrative Office. The 36th District Court's chief judge said in a statement, reported by WDIV: “We will be contacting the State Court Administrative Office to seek guidance regarding the election of Kahlilia Davis and will follow up as appropriate once we have received direction.” Until that guidance arrives, Detroit has an elected judge who cannot judge — and nearly 84,000 votes cast for a bench that will stay empty of the person chosen to fill it.