Post Gubernatorial Years
On June 23, 1963, Swainson accompanied the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Detroit mayor Jerome Cavanagh, and approximately 125,000 people on a "Walk for Freedom" march down Detroit's Woodward Avenue. That year he was also a member of Democratic National Committee from Michigan.
He served as Michigan Circuit Court judge of the 3rd Circuit from 1965 to 1971, and as a Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 1971 to 1975. In 1975 he was accused of accepting a bribe, namely $20,000 from a felon who was seeking review by the Supreme Court. He was found not guilty, but was convicted of perjury over his testimony to the grand jury. As a result, he resigned from the Supreme Court, was sentenced to 60 days in a minimum-security facility, and lost his license to practice law for three years.
The criminal charges derailed his expected run to replace the retiring Senator Phil Hart. There are pundits who maintain that he was the "victim of an overzealous prosecutor."
He later became an antiques dealer and became president of the Michigan Historical Commission. In these later years, he often represented the state at the Detroit Highland Games, apologizing for not wearing a kilt because "I don't have the legs for it."
His life's journey was described as being an inspirational story of personal redemption. "By 1985, his reputation was restored when he was appointed president of the Michigan Historical Commission. (Michigan Supreme Court. Michigan Reports: Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of Michigan. Rochester, N.Y.: Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Co., 1949 - 1998, Vol. 419.)"
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