From former State Rep, Lt. Gov. candidate, department Director, newspaper man, professor, Supreme Court Justice rejector, etc, Jim Nowlan:
The court that appoints itself
Six of the seven members of the Illinois Supreme Court reached their lofty bench by
appointment, even though the Illinois Constitution is quite clear that members of the court shall
be elected.
In effect, the court has been appointing itself.
The following practice has developed in Illinois: Illinois Supreme Court judges are elected to the state high court on a partisan basis for 10-year terms. When a vacancy occurs as a result of retirement or whatever, the state Supreme Court appoints a replacement until the next election.
This appointment of their own members is unique in the U.S.
As the practice has developed, a supreme court judge makes his or her retirement effective just after the final date for filing candidacy petitions has passed.
This means the supreme court makes an interim appointment that is effective for more than two years.
The judges defer to the wishes of the retiree as to his/her own successor.
This is similar to “aldermanic privilege” in Chicago, where the 50 aldermen nearly always vote to support the wishes of an alderman on matters within her/her ward.
You scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours.
In effect, Illinois supreme court judges appoint their successors.
But, retort the judges, the appointee ultimately has to run for election to serve a full 10-year term.
Yes, but the fortunate appointee runs later with all the trappings of incumbency.
You have seen the billboards: “Keep Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Quite Contrary on our state’s highest court. Retain Justice Quite Contrary June 28.”
This dampens interest among lawyers and lower court judges in contesting the “incumbent,” and
few do.
So, basically, the Illinois Supreme Court appoints itself.
This came to mind when I read that Supreme Court Judge Rita Garman recently announced her retirement (doing so after the candidate filing deadline).
Immediately thereafter, the court (meaning Garman, because of “aldermanic privilege”) appointed Appellate Court Judge Lisa Holder White to take Garman’s place on the high court bench.
Indeed, in earlier years, Garman had also appointed Holder White, first to the circuit bench, and then to the appellate bench.
All of this appointing has become a high-toned form of job patronage, and there is lots of it.
To illustrate, each Illinois supreme court judge is authorized, by the court, to make one or more personal appointments to the appellate bench, without cover of a filling a retirement or whatever.
For example, ex-supreme court judge Tom Kilbride had appointed Robert Carter to the appellate bench for 15 years straight, without him ever having been elected, until 2020, when the court appointed Kilbride protégé Carter to the supreme court.
This is not new.
In the 1960s, for example, a Republican judge from Canton named Albert Scott served as chief judge of the 3rd District Appellate Court (an honorific, rotating position), without ever having been elected to the appellate court.
Indeed, Scott was rejected by the voters in his bid to be elected to the appellate court in 1974, yet was subsequently appointed again as a member of that court.
The supreme irony of this appointing process is that it may give us better judges overall than would pure election.
What do you and I know about judicial candidates?
For example, Judge Lisa Holder White is, I am told, a fine judge.
She is also an African-American from modest financial background.
So, she may never have had a chance via the election process to become a circuit, appellate, and first black female Illinois Supreme Court judge.
Yet the process of appointing your successor is fraught with problems.
Does it result in perpetuation of a particular legal philosophy?
For example, the trial lawyers have always had strong influence within the state high court.
These lawyers oppose, of course, any caps on awards to their clients, which would in turn cap their fees.
These savvy lawyers have always been big contributors to supreme court judges.
And, does the process cause lawyers and lower court judges who want to be higher court judges to suck up to those who might appoint them, and generally exclude those who don’t?
I am a PhD, not a JD, and I have not followed the courts closely, so I have more questions than
answers.
Selection of judges has been a quandary for American democracy throughout our history, because of the separation of powers, and our belief in the election process.
Should the executive or the legislative branches, or the voters, select judges?
No system is perfect, and “politics,” that is, who gets what, plays a part in any selection process.
Personally, I like the Missouri Plan, where nonpartisan panels of lawyers and nonlawyers come up with nominees of acceptable candidates, and the governor selects judges from among the names given him.
A number of states have adopted this plan, or something like it.
I have trouble with the Illinois system. In effect, the high court appoints itself.
Affirmative action program to fill the supreme court with antiwhite apparatchiks and outright crooks.
These rats also live in splendor in the Supreme Court building complete with valets and a first class chef while the court is in session.
No spouses allowed!
Gee, I wonder why.
Only in Illinois. Winning for the people/sheeple
The same thing happens in the Circuit Court of McHenry County.
Full judges retire before their terms expire.
Then an Associate judge is elevated to Full Judge status until the next election.
The sitting Full judges then appoint a member of the bar to fill the vacancy created by the elevation of the previous Associate judge to Full judge. Brownnosers usually get those.
The new Full judge runs for election at the next cycle.
Lawyers who practice in the county don’t usually run against the Full judge because if they do and lose they might as well move out of town afterwards. If they win they would probably be assigned to the worst possible courtroom.
The only people you see running usually are those who don’t practice in the county courthouse or are States Attorneys who move out of the county afer they lose (Dmitri) or lawyers who have no chance of winning (Flavin) so it isnt’ taken seriously.
IF someone does run, they are given an “unqualified” rating by the Bar Association and the sitting judge is given a “qualified” rating.
This convinces most voters to vote for the sitting judge.
No one has ever been successful to my knowlege in challenging a sitting judge.
This is why, almost 3 weeks after the primary, nobody major in the Republican Establishment except outsider Judge Noverini has endorsed Sheriff Curran despite his primary victory in the 2nd District of the Illinois Supreme Court.
Better a litmus test liberal Democrat Elizabeth Rochford than an outsider that might disturb this cozy system of insider judicial power.
By the way, this is the only state in the country that guarantees one county a near total vice grip on their Supreme Court.
Another gift of “Republican” Dick Ogilvie and his 1970 Constitution is 3 out of the 7 Illinois Supreme Court justices have to come from Cook County.
We can’t “vote the bums out” by elections or by getting a new Governor to appoint new ones. Short of a new constitution, this is a once in a lifetime to change a terrible, out of control liberal court.
But as always, our Illinois Republican Establishment is ready to kow-tow to their Democrat partners, just like they did in 2004 by threatening Peter Fitzgerald with a major primary so he could get out of the way for the Black Messiah Obama. T
he Combine, as John Kass calls them, in action once again.
Excellent comment.
It will appear as an article Monday shortly after 11.
Because, that is not how it works.
The circuits appoint associates only.
Circuit vacancies are filled by the Supreme Court justice for the circuit in question.
Was bob Thomas, firmer bears kicker.
Now someone named Burke.
Martin, yes but they almost always appoint who is recommended by the locals.
Exception is Mike Chmiel who was Thomas’s campaign manager for McHenry County when he first ran for the Supreme Court.
One of the few mistakes of the Founding Fathers—lifetime appointments for judges with no recalls. But then again, they never expected our present black robed dictators legislating from the bench. Like Senators, they ought to be elected every 6 years on a partisan basis. Two bites of the apple to clean them out—the primary and the fall election, just like the politicians they are.
I also like the system where somebody doesn’t have to go to law school to practice law as in the old days. It’s become a system of tricksters who scratch each other’s back. We have more lawyers in America than the rest of the world put together, just like the cost of our “education” system is about equal to the rest of the world put together. Between a totally corrupt legal, health and education system, no wonder America is just about finished as a world power.
This patronage has been the exclusive practice in the Second District (includes McHenry County) under former Justice Robert Thomas (also a former Bears kicker).
Every judicial vacancy has been strategically planned to permit the appointment of a favored candidate who can later run as an “experienced judge.” Without any vetting, competition, or process other than the say-so of one man. But those back room appointees never mention that their experience was obtained by fiat — not voters. Those appointed circuit judges (elected judges) are responsible for appointing associate judges (unelected judges). The result is that our entire McHenry County judiciary is a product of political patronage — the fruit of a political tree.
In McHenry County, this is evidenced by the success of our own chief judge Michael Chmiel — who was also former Justice Thomas’ campaign manager for McHenry County. Thomas appointed every single circuit judge who just “voted” to make Roberts’ campaign manager Chmiel their chief Judge. In this judicial patronage system, a judge gets to pick his voters.
This is a mockery of our justice system and the important role judges play in it. It’s wrong when Democrats do it and it’s wrong when Republicans do it. The bench should not be a political prize. Moreover, the public’s trust in our judiciary gets eroded with each and every appointment.
Watch what happens with the McHenry County’s new open judge seat now that Circuit Judge Wilbrandt has announced his retirement. Will his vacancy be filled by appointment? By whom? Has that person already been decided? How was this decided? No one will know much until it has been a done deal, because there is no right to FOIA the courts. That secrecy perpetuates this deeply unethical system of patronage.
Xianthius, you’re welcome for coffee at my office any time.
Because, that is not so. Past Justices have asked for local input. Thomas never did.
bump for rare high-quality thread
Martin is a sleaze lawyer.