Court Battle Over Changes to Arizona’s Commission on Court Appointments

The Brennan Center and Justice at Stake have filed an amicus brief in a challenge to an April 2013 law changing the process by which Arizona’s Commission on Appellate Court Appointments recommends candidates to fill judicial vacancies. The April legislation both requires the nominating commission to...

Policy Brief on Judicial Evaluations

Since 2010, the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice has managed a Pilot Project for judicial evaluation: the Judicial Performance Commission of Cook County. This demonstration project explores the feasibility of using the performance commission model to evaluate judicial retention candidates to posit...

CCL & Chicago Appleseed in the News on Judicial Elections

WGN, the Chicago Tribune and Medill Watchdog have begun a series of investigations into the judicial elections process. The integrity of the judicial elections process is an important research concern at Chicago Appleseed, as is the overall quality of our judiciary and the investigators spoke to our...

Filling Judicial Vacancies

The Chicago Tribune has reported that Justice Freeman of the Illinois Supreme Court has appointed his long-time law clerk, Jean Cocozza, to a vacancy in the Circuit Court. The Tribune reports that Judge Cocozza has no courtroom experience and that she was not evaluated for judicial service by any in...

Proposals to Reform the Judicial Retention Process

Two bills recently introduced into the Illinois state legislature have caught our attention. Representative Kelly Cassidy has sponsored HJRCA0010, a proposal to amend the Illinois constitution and create a judicial performance commission for the evaluation of judicial retention candidates. Rep. C...
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