SPRINGFIELD – Lake County citizen Dan McConchie aims to challenge division of his county into judicial subcircuits as a partner with Madison County at Sangamon County circuit court.
McConchie, who also serves as a Republican state senator, petitioned to intervene in Madison County’s action on Jan. 31, stating he and the county presented common questions of fact and law.
His counsel Phillip Luetkehans of Itasca wrote, “Both the underlying complaint and the one sought to be filed concern the constitutionality of the act.”
He also offered evidence to undermine claims of legislators that they passed the Judicial Circuits Districting Act for the sake of diversity.
Legislators passed the Act on Jan. 5, and Governor J. B. Pritzker signed it on Jan. 7.
For Madison County, they created a first subcircuit on the county’s west side, a second toward the county’s center, and a third to the east.
They gave subcircuits nearly equal populations but not equal resources.
They gave three judges to the first and second subcircuits and two to the third.
For this year, they excluded two thirds of the county from voting for judges.
They did it by assigning two available vacancies to the first subcircuit.
They also converted Bond County, which occupies the Third Judicial Circuit along with Madison County, from a circuit to a subcircuit.
Finally, they eliminated at large judgeships that required running in both counties.
Madison County board members adopted a resolution against the Act on Jan. 13, and state’s attorney Tom Haine sued for a temporary restraining order on Jan. 21.
County resident Christina Wiley also signed the complaint, representing herself.
“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 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.
He alleges disenfranchisement in the allotment of judges.
He argues that legislators used precincts on a configuration of last May 27, but the county board redrew precincts on Dec. 23.
Sangamon County Circuit Judge Ryan Cadigan held a hearing on Jan. 24, and granted a temporary restraining order.
He found legislators intruded on judicial powers and violated a constitutional prohibition on special legislation.
He directed the state elections board to reinstate countywide elections and he directed the Supreme Court clerk to certify countywide vacancies.
He set a Feb. 15 hearing on a preliminary injunction.
Pritzker appealed to the Fourth District in Springfield.
Election board members chose to comply with the order and removed petitions from their website.
Supreme Court Justices chose not to comply, and their certificates of vacancies for subcircuits remain in place.
On Jan. 28, Haine filed an emergency petition for Cadigan to enforce his order.
He argues that Pritzker’s appeal didn’t stay enforcement.
Lake County’s petition to intervene
The geography of the constitutional conflict changed when Luetkehans filed McConchie’s petition to intervene.
“The legislature may enact laws that complement the authority of the judiciary or that only have a peripheral effect on court administration,” Luetkehans wrote.
“The legislature does not have the power to enact laws that unduly infringe upon the inherent powers of the judiciary.”
He wrote that nine Lake County subcircuits would have one judge and three subcircuits would have two.
“The three subcircuits with two resident judgeships are each heavily Democratic subcircuits,” he wrote.
He claimed elimination of at large judgeships “creates a situation where current judges who were elected at large will be up for retention in subcircuits that do not contain all the voters who originally elected them.”
Like Haine, he pointed out that legislators used precinct configurations that no longer existed.
He argues the county clerk would have to create many additional ballot styles.
“Additionally, the proponents of the bill proclaimed that the purpose of the subcircuits was to improve minorities’ chances of electing a judge of their choice in the subcircuits, but of the three subcircuits awarded two judgeships, only one is majority Latino,” he wrote.
“Further, no majority African-American subcircuits were created.
“Further, there is no evidence the General Assembly knew where minority lawyers in the 19th Circuit live.
“Because judges must be lawyers, this information would be required to achieve the purpose the proponents claimed.”
Pritzker’s appeal remained pending as of Feb. 1.
Candidates must file petitions from March 7 to March 14.
Voters will cast primary ballots on June 28.