SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Supreme Court is ignoring an order of Sangamon County Circuit Judge Ryan Cadigan to reinstate countywide judicial elections in Madison County, according to state’s attorney Tom Haine.
Haine filed an emergency petition to enforce Cadigan’s temporary restraining order on Jan. 28, four days after Cadigan signed it.
He asked for a hearing where Supreme Court clerk Cynthia Grant could show Cadigan why he shouldn’t hold her in indirect civil contempt.
Haine
“In a proceeding concerning indirect civil contempt, the trial court seeks only to secure obedience to its prior order,” he wrote.
Haine wrote that the state election board has complied with the order and removed petitions for vacancies from its website.
His petition also states that an appeal of Cadigan’s order to the Fourth District in Springfield didn’t automatically stay enforcement.
He wrote that application for a stay must be made to the circuit court unless that isn’t practical.
All last year, Madison County voters expected to fill vacancies of former circuit judges Richard Tognarelli and David Dugan.
Tognarelli had retired and Dugan had advanced to U.S. district court.
On Jan. 5, legislators divided the Third Judicial Circuit into four subcircuits.
Governor J. B. Pritzker signed their bill into law on Jan. 7.
It created three subcircuits in Madison County and one in Bond County.
It eliminated at large judgeships, which required running in both counties, and turned them into resident judgeships accountable only in subcircuits.
It gave about a third of Madison County’s population to each subcircuit but it didn’t distribute judges equally.
A first subcircuit on the county’s west side and a second subcurcuit towards the county’s center each got three, and a third subcircuit to the east got two.
Legislators assigned the Tognarelli and Dugan vacancies to the first subcircuit, excluding two thirds of the county from those campaigns.
County board members adopted a resolution against the law on Jan. 13, and Haine sued the election board, Pritzker, and Grant on Jan. 21.
“The judges elected under this unconstitutional scheme could potentially retain their seats for many years to come," Haine wrote.
He wrote that the general assembly never 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.
“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.”
He pointed out a practical problem, writing that legislators used precincts on a configuration of last May 27.
He wrote that the county board redrew precincts on Dec. 23, changing the makeup of precincts referred to in the bill or completely eliminating them.
Christina Wiley of Bethalto signed Haine’s complaint too, representing herself.
Haine wrote that Wiley wouldn’t have a right to vote for a circuit judge for many years if at all, depending on remapping of subcircuits in 2031.
Cadigan held a hearing on Jan. 24, and found plaintiffs demonstrated a fair question as to infringement on separation of powers.
He found they demonstrated a fair question as to violation of the Illinois Constitution’s prohibition on special legislation.
He found a majority of voters would be precluded from voting.
He found subcircuits with no at large judgeships might be unconstitutional.
He also found a burden of significant expense in reconfiguring voter cards.
He ordered the election board to accept petitions collected in the first subcircuit from Jan. 22 to Jan. 24 for the reinstated countywide election.
He ordered the Supreme Court clerk to recertify the vacancies as they were prior to passage of the law.
Haine was given seven days to move for a preliminary injunction, and defendants were given seven days to oppose the motion.
Hearing is set Feb. 15.
Pritzker appealed Cadagin's order a day after it was signed.
Candidates must file petitions from March 7 to March 14.
Voters will cast primary ballots on June 28.