Geography no worry when Supreme Court appoints judges

Early in November, Allan W. Masters filed papers declaring his candidacy for a vacancy in the 12th judicial subcircuitt on Chicago’s North Shore, where his home is located.

The odd part: Masters is currently sitting as a judge in the 9th subcircuit an area farther south.

He has been filling that 9th subcircuit seat since June, when the state Supreme Court appointed Masters to fill a vacancy created when Judge Lee Preston retired.

The court made that appointment despite the  Illinois Judicial Vacancies Act, a law that states the Supreme Court should fill vacancies with residents of the subcircuit where the vacancy occurs.   The act states: “A person appointed to fill a vacancy in the office of circuit judge shall be, at the time of appointment, a resident of the subcircuit from which the person whose vacancy is being filled was elected if the vacancy occurred in a circuit divided into subcircuits.”

It’s one more way in which the system of subcircuit judicial posts in Cook County seems to be amiss. A joint investigation by Medill Watchdog and WGN Investigates found a series of problems that plague the subcircuit system enacted in 1991 by legislators who hoped to create a diverse corps of judges from neighborhoods throughout the county. The system has led to a higher number of judges who do not pass muster in the evaluation process of a variety of bar associations; and several judges have houses outside the subcircuits from which they were elected.

The investigation also identified a series of instances in which the Illinois Supreme Court has appointed judges who do not live in the subcircuit in which the vacancy occurs.

In 2003 the state enacted the provision of the Judicial Vacancies Act, just to be clear about its expectations when the Supreme Court goes to fill vacancies on the court.

The court has never ruled on whether it considers that 2003 provision constitutional or not. It just seems, at times, to make its appointments without worrying about the niceties of geography.

Explained Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, who represents the Chicago Bar Association: “The only person who can tell us what the law is and if it’s constitutional is the Illinois Supreme Court. And nobody has brought a case so it’s a little bit like not challenging people’s addresses. If nobody challenges them then the law just kind of evolves on its own.”

So when Anthony Iosco retired from the Cook County Circuit Court last year from the 13th subcircuit in the northwest suburbs,, the court chose to replace him with Lauretta Higgins Wolfson, who lives in a downtown high rise with her husband, a well-known retired judge and DePaul University School of Law visiting professor.

Wolfson, like Masters, failed to respond to repeated requests for comment.

The appointments do more than help fill temporary holes on the bench. In an elective system that many legal experts worry opens the door to uninformed voters making bad choices, the appointments give a boost to those appointed when they compete in elections to fill the seats more permanently.

In recent years, the court has on several occasions filled vacancies by appointing highly rated judges after they lose elective races. “They are supposed to be trying to find the best qualified people,” explained Suffredin.

(Part 5) - Continue Reading

Full Article and Source:
Geography no worry when Supreme Court appoints judges

See Also:

Judging the Judges: Cook County’s Troubled Judiciary Elections System  (Part 1)

Issues of qualifications: Subcircuit judges often less touted (Part 2)

Moving out: Subcircuit judges relocate, foiling geographic diversity (Part 3)

Questions of residence: Records raise questions about residences of some subcircuit judges (Part 4)