Chief Justice Robert Young Jr. broke with the court's conservative bloc and joined three liberal justices in letting a minimum five-year prison sentence stand last week.

...

Justice Stephen Markman calls the decision "remarkable." He and two other Republicans on the court say illegal immigrants now have greater protections as crime victims than law-abiding residents.

Amazing.  The dissenting.

I do not agree that illegal alien status somehow transforms those persons into "vulnerable" victims, so that crimes committed against them are to be punished more severely than identical crimes against citizens and legal aliens. Were that to be true, it would presumably also be the case that any crime knowingly committed against another criminal would be punished more severely than an identical crime against a law-abiding citizen. I do not believe the Legislature had any intention to single out illegal aliens and subject those who commit crimes against this class of persons to greater punishment than those who commit crimes against any other person.

"Vulnerability" is defined in MCL 777.40(3)(c) as "the readily apparent susceptibility of a victim to injury, physical restraint, persuasion, or temptation," and MCL 777.40(1)(b) provides illustrations of covered vulnerabilities, e.g., "a victim's physical disability, mental disability, youth or agedness, or a domestic relationship . . . ." MCL 777.40(1)(c) further refers to situations in which an "offender exploit[s] a victim by his or her difference in size or strength, or both, or exploit[s] a victim who was intoxicated, under the influence of drugs, asleep, or unconscious." These illustrations, although not exclusive, shed light on what the Legislature meant by a "vulnerable victim," and illegal alien status, in my judgment, is in no way even remotely similar to these illustrations. It is hardly a "vulnerability" akin to a physical or mental disability, or analogous to youth or agedness, that as a result of his victimization an illegal alien may be rendered more likely to come into contact with law enforcement authorities or more likely to be held accountable for his lawbreaking. Only a highly strained and unreasonable reading of MCL 777.40 would equate these "vulnerabilities."

Yep.  And thank you Justices Mary Beth Kelly, Stephen Markman, and Brian Zarha for standing tall on this.

Perhaps, this SCOMI split is just another indication that social issues are the definitive difference between a Progressive and Conservative.