A Call for Transparency: Illinois Judicial Vacancies Should Be Made Public

This piece originally appeared at the Huffington Post. When an Illinois judge quits or retires before the end of her term, Article VI, Section 12 of the Illinois Constitution allows the Illinois Supreme Court to select her replacement. This process happens behind closed doors –the vacancy is not an...
June 24, 2011

Links of Interest

What We Read, June 13-17, 2011 Criminal Justice Court Reform: SCotUS Blog analyzes the 5-4 decision in J.D.B. v. North Carolina (.pdf), in which the Court has ruled for the first time that police must take into account the age of a youth they intend to question when deciding whether or not they m...
June 17, 2011

Evaluating Judges

87 percent of all state court judges face election to gain or retain their seats, according to the National Center for State Courts, with 39 states electing at least some of their judges. State courts in the United States are unique in the world—neither our own federal system, nor any other nation,...
May 25, 2011

New York’s Judicial Campaign Reform a Great Start

The New York Administrative Board of Courts recently issued a new rule that would prohibit judges from hearing cases where any one of the lawyers or parties on either side has contributed $2,500 or more to that judge’s election campaign. (The case will be transferred if a lawyer’s firm has contribut...
March 17, 2011

Who Ruled that Rahm Couldn’t Run?

Whenever big political decisions come before little known judges, all eyes are on the bench. Since 1970, the Chicago Council for Lawyers (Chicago Appleseed’s partner organization), has been reviewing the performance of judges serving on Cook County Circuit Courts, as well as 1st District Candidates...
January 26, 2011