A chimpanzee identified as Tommy pictured in a 2017 letter by PETA to the USDA requesting an investigation of the DeYoung Family Zoo in Wallace. (Courtesy of the Nonhuman Rights Project, via Michigan Advance)

The Nonhuman Rights Project, a legal advocacy organization that has been advocating for the rights of seven chimpanzees at the DeYoung Family Zoo in Wallace has filed an application with the Michigan Supreme Court to overturn a Court of Appeals decision and grant the chimpanzees a trial court hearing for habeas corpus relief.

The case was first dismissed in 2023 by the Menominee County Circuit Court. The Court of Appeals heard the case in October, after which they denied the writ of habeas corpus on the grounds that chimpanzees are not “persons” under the law.

In their decision, the appellate court wrote that “only our Supreme Court may revise that common law principle,” referencing the argument from Nonhuman Rights Project lawyers that common law, as opposed to a specific statute referencing a person, should apply in this case. The judges then noted that “plaintiff’s argument for doing so is in any event substantively unpersuasive.”

“The common law is judge-made law that’s meant to evolve in accordance with societal norms,” the Nonhuman Rights Project said in a statement announcing their appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.

“Recognizing the DeYoung Prisoners’ right to bodily liberty is a much-needed evolution of Michigan common law, required by the demands of justice and fully in accord with the Great Writ’s tradition,” the lawyers for the chimpanzees wrote in their Application for Leave to Appeal.

Ultimately, the lawyers are seeking for the seven chimpanzees in question to be released to a designated sanctuary, but the primary question in these decisions is whether or not the legal team for the chimpanzees can demand a hearing on the merits of the case, as opposed to the more technical questions at hand.

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