Lansing residents have elected the first Latino to represent them as judge in the city’s district court.
Judge Tony Flores is a long-time Lansing resident who was one of two candidates elected to fill the 54A District Court judge seats during November’s midterm elections.
Flores was appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer last spring to serve a partial term in the seat following the retirement of former Judge Louise Alderson.
Flores says he feels proud to represent the Latino community of Lansing.
“I think, in Lansing, it was so meaningful, because they really got to see somebody in the pipeline of being a lawyer take the bench, and there's just not a lot of Latina, Latino, Latinx lawyers in the legal pipeline," he said.
Flores is originally from West Texas but moved to Lansing to attend law school in 1989. He says it feels long overdue to have Latino representation in Lansing
“We do have we have a county judge who is Latino heritage, but none in the city. And we have a pretty strong Latino contingent," he said.
As 54A District Court judge, Flores is responsible for district court cases coming out of the City of Lansing or lawsuits involving less than $25,000 dollars.
"We do anything that involves misdemeanors, city ordinances, landlord tenant cases and civil suits," he said.
Flores’ term will begin next January and run to 2029 alongside Judge Kristen D. Simmons.
