SPRINGFIELD – Eleven counties currently in the Fourth Judicial District will join the Fifth Judicial District on Jan. 1, when the Supreme Court adopts boundaries that legislators drew in May.
The Fifth District will absorb Champaign, Clark, Coles, Cumberland, DeWitt, Douglas, Edgar, Macon, Moultrie, Piatt and Vermilion counties.
Those additions extend the district to Decatur, Champaign, and Danville.
The Fourth District, which currently crosses the middle of the state, will start at Staunton and end at Wisconsin.
The Third District, which currently connects Will County to Peoria and Rock Island, will shed its western side and add DuPage County.
The Second District, which currently runs from Chicago suburbs to Iowa, will shed DuPage County and end halfway to Iowa.
No change occurred in the First District, which Cook County occupies alone.
The First and Second districts elect two Supreme Court Justices each, and the other three districts each elects one.
Each district elects its own appellate judges.
Legislators provided for immediate conversion when they passed the map, but Supreme Court Justices gave themselves time to adjust.
They announced completion of adjustment on Dec. 8.
“Circuit courts remain subject to the rule that when conflicts arise among the districts, the circuit court is bound by the decisions of the appellate court of the district in which it sits,” they wrote.
“For purposes of application of this rule in a redistricted circuit, the appropriate appellate district shall be the district in which the circuit was located at the time that the circuit court action was initiated.”
They wrote that if an appellate court hears an appeal and another appellate court hears a subsequent appeal, the second court should treat a decision of the first court as the law of the case.
“The fact that the decision of the prior district applied the law of the prior district that is contrary to the law of the new district shall not be a basis for departing from the decision of the prior district,” they wrote.
The boundary changes followed a decision of Third District voters who denied retention to Justice James Kilbride last year.
Many who fired him won’t get to hire his replacement.
On New Year’s Day, more than 40 percent of current Third District residents will wake up in the Fourth District.
Justice Robert Carter of Ottawa occupies the seat by appointment and has stated he won’t run next year.
Here’s how the new map shapes up:
Second District: DeKalb, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry.
Third District: Bureau, DuPage, Grundy, Iroquois, Kankakee, La Salle, Will
Fourth District: Adams, Boone, Brown, Calhoun, Carroll, Cass, Ford, Fulton, Greene, Hancock, Henderson, Henry, Jersey, Jo Daviess, Knox, Lee, Livingston, Logan, Macoupin, Marshall, Mason, McDonough, McLean, Menard, Mercer, Morgan, Ogle, Peoria, Pike, Putnam, Rock Island, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott, Stark, Stephenson, Tazewell, Warren, Whiteside, Winnebago, Woodford
Fifth District: Alexander, Bond, Champaign, Christian, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, DeWitt, Douglas, Edgar, Edwards, Effingham, Fayette, Franklin, Gallatin, Hamilton, Hardin, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Johnson, Lawrence, Macon, Madison, Marion, Massac, Monroe, Montgomery, Moultrie, Perry, Piatt, Pope, Pulaski, Randolph, Richland, St. Clair, Saline, Shelby, Union, Vermilion, Wabash, Washington, Wayne, White, Williamson