■ Commencement
Momentous occasion
Before the nine justices, Hammoud represented the state in Brown v. Davenport, a habeas corpus case. She argued that the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals applied the wrong test and disregarded Congress’s directive in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. After Hammoud made her case, the justices rendered a 6-3 opinion in the state’s favor.
On Jan. 15, 2019, Hammoud became the youngest Michigan solicitor general and the first Arab American Muslim solicitor general in the United States.
Now, Hammoud supervises all appellate activity and, as bureau chief of the Criminal Justice Bureau, oversees all criminal divisions in the department as well as the newly created Conviction Integrity Unit. Additionally, she leads the Flint water crisis investigation and prosecution team of special agents and assistant attorneys general.
A Lebanese American, Hammoud advocated on behalf of Wayne County’s various ethnic and immigrant communities and advised state, county and city leaders on their affairs. She served as a governor-appointed commissioner on the Commission on Middle Eastern American Affairs within the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, among other executive and legislative advisory bodies.
Hammoud is also a champion of public education in her hometown of Dearborn. She served as a trustee and treasurer of the Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education and the Henry Ford College Board of Trustees and Officers.
