Merit Selection and Judicial Elections

With oral arguments in Williams-Yulee before the Supreme Court earlier this year, attention has once again focused on the impact of money in judicial campaigns. The question of how judges can remain impartial looms large when judges must stand for general election or receive a sufficient number of v...
January 29, 2015

Chicago Appleseed & Chicago Council of Lawyers Join in Amicus Brief

Chicago Appleseed and Chicago Council of Lawyers are signatories on an amicus brief submitted in Williams-Yulee vs. Florida Bar before the Supreme Court this term. We join 9 other state and local nonpartisan organizations committed to creating and maintaining an ethical judicial system and promoting...
December 22, 2014

Judicial Elections

Early voting has already started in Cook County and there are 101 judicial races: 27 vacancies, 73 retention elections and 1 new judicial seat. Voteforjudges.org—a non-partisan website founded by Chicago Appleseed and sponsored by the Committee to Elect Qualified Judges—collects the judicial evalua...
October 21, 2014

Policy Statement on Docket Statistic Reporting

Chicago Appleseed advocates for research-driven solutions to systemic dysfunction and supports evidence-based reforms in Illinois’ courts, government and communities. Our staff and teams of pro bono professionals rely on meaningful data about Cook County’s courts in order to identify inefficiencies,...
May 14, 2014

Judicial Election Spending

By Aswan Taylor, Intern for Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice A wave of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, culminating in last week’s McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission ruling, have diverged from the formidable pull of public sentiment and mounting research to reassert the role of financi...
April 24, 2014