SPRINGFIELD – A Sangamon County judge on Jan. 24 granted a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit State’s Attorney Tom Haine filed over the redistricting of Madison County’s judiciary.
The order signed by Circuit Judge Ryan Cadagin is in effect until Feb. 15, when a hearing will be held on the County's motion for preliminary injunction.
Cadagin's ruling preserves Madison County’s at-large judicial elections for the time being.
The County has to file its motion for preliminary injunction by Jan. 31, and defendants have until Feb. 7 to respond.
"The Plaintiffs have demonstrated that they will suffer irreparable harm unless the Defendants are temporarily restrained from taking actions...for the following reasons: voters in a majority of Madison County would be precluded in voting in the election of a sub-circuit judge, the creation of circuit exclusively comprised of sub-circuits with no at large circuit judgeships may be unconstitutional, and the County would be burdened with significant expense in reconfiguring voter cards and other confusion caused by the Act," the order states.
It also indicates that candidate petitions collected between Jan. 22-24 for the sub-circuit elections "shall be accepted by the State Board of Elections for the reinstated county wide residency election."
Haine said he was pleased with the ruling.
“This is not a partisan issue, it is a Constitutional issue," he said. "I appreciate the Judge’s diligent work in allowing our Madison County judicial elections to go forward without being burdened by this seriously flawed subcircuit law, which has many constitutional issues. We will formally move for a preliminary injunction in the coming days asking the court to continue this protection past February 15.”
In the lawsuit filed Jan. 21, Haine argued that legislators who split Madison County into judicial subcircuits intended to manipulate outcomes of judicial elections.
He sought the TRO against Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who signed an act breaking the Third Judicial Circuit into four pieces on Jan. 7. The State Board of Elections, its members and the Clerk of the Supreme Court are also named defendants.
“The judges elected under this unconstitutional scheme could potentially retain their seats for many years to come,” Haine wrote in the suit.
“This is not a peripheral act, but rather a bold encroachment upon the rights of the people of Madison County to elect their judges and the integrity of the judicial branch itself.
“If the general assembly can unashamedly gerrymander judicial districts for partisan reasons in order to control judicial outcomes, what authority does the judiciary have left?”
The act created three subcircuits in Madison County and one in Bond County.
In Madison County, it limited this year’s judicial elections to the first subdistrict.
Haine wrote that residents of the second and third subdistricts were prohibited from voting for a circuit judge this year and were forever barred from voting for a judge in the first subcircuit.
He wrote that the method was inconsistent with all other current applications of subcircuits throughout the state.
He objected to transformation of “at large” judges, who won elections by running in both counties, into resident judges accountable only in subcircuits.
He wrote that the general assembly never before eliminated at large judgeships in a circuit and replaced them with resident subcircuit judgeships.
“This revolution, hidden in the Act, is in profound tension with the Illinois Constitution, which provides that the general assembly by law may provide for the division of a circuit for the purpose of selection of circuit judges and for the selection of circuit judges from the circuit at large,” he wrote.
“It is impossible to read this constitutional provision in a way that would allow the general assembly authority to eliminate the only form of judicial elections specifically mentioned in that provision.
“If allowed, the general assembly would have the unfettered ability to assign subcircuit judges while stacking particular subcircuits pursuant to the political whims of the general assembly.”
He alleged another constitutional violation in eliminating at large retention for the Third Circuit but not for any other circuit in the Act.
An Illinois judge wins the job for six years in a partisan election and retains it for six more by achieving 60 percent approval on a non partisan basis.
“Under the Act’s framework, judges from a subcircuit are beholden only to those citizens in their subcircuit for the entirety of their time on the circuit bench despite being charged with presiding over cases throughout the county,” Haine wrote.
“There is no basis or reasonable explanation for why only Madison County has been singled out to suffer this unique fate.”
He alleged disenfranchisement in the bill’s allotment of three judges each to the first and second subcircuits and only two to the third subcircuit.
He also pointed out practical problems for this year.
He wrote that legislators used precincts on a configuration of last May 27, but the county board redrew precincts on Dec. 23.
“This redrawing of voting precincts in Madison County has changed the makeup or completely eliminated a number of precincts referred to in the Act,” he wrote.
He wrote that the county must maintain two sets of precincts and the clerk must create additional ballot styles.
He wrote that voter registration cards have been processed and no card contains subcircuit information.
He found it likely that persons with identical precincts and identical subcircuits wouldn’t receive identical ballots.
“The 2022 judicial vacancy elections should be held at large, applying tried and true voter notice and electoral machinery, and be filled by any qualified attorney in Madison County,” he wrote.
“Moreover, all of the voters in Madison County should be able to vote to select their judicial candidates as they always have.”
Christina Wiley of Bethalto signed Haine’s complaint too, representing herself.
Haine wrote that she wouldn’t have a right to vote for a circuit judge for many years if at all, depending on remapping of subcircuits in 2031.
He wrote that prior to the division, candidates for the June 28 primary could have circulated petitions starting Jan. 13.
He wrote that candidates would file petitions from March 7 to March 14.