Justice Michael F. Cavenaugh was the longest-serving Michigan Supreme Court justice. He was first elected in 1982 and re-elected in 1990, 1998, and 2006. He was the Chief Justice from 1991-1995. His term expired in 2015.
Justice Cavenaugh grew up in Canada and Detroit. He attended college at the University of Detroit and law school at the University of Detroit Law School. He was the youngest person elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals in 1975, prior to which he was a judge in Lansing, a partner in the firm of Farhat, Burns, and Storey, and the Lansing City Attorney.