SPRINGFIELD – Legislators who abuse their power over courts lose elections, Governor JB Pritzker’s lawyer argued at a court hearing on division of Madison County into three judicial subcircuits.
Whether or not assistant attorney general Joshua Ratz intended to dare voters to reject a partisan gerrymandering, he made it clear no court could reject it.
Ratz prevailed, as Sangamon County Circuit Judge Ryan Cadigan dismissed the county’s petition to declare the subcircuits unconstitutional.
Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine, who is appealing Cadagin’s ruling, filed the petition in January, after the county board adopted a resolution against the subcircuits.
Republican judicial candidates Amy Sholar and Christopher Threlkeld joined Haine’s lawsuit, claiming legislators arranged Democratic victories.
Cadigan initially enjoined enforcement of the law and set a hearing where in the end he ruled in favor of the law.
At the Feb. 24 hearing, Ratz said the central issue was who gets to decide how judges are elected.
“Who decides the manner of electing circuit judges, who decides how many circuit judges there will be, who decides where those circuit judges will be elected?” Ratz said.
“We know from the federal constitution that the President and the Senate decide who the judges are going to be.”
He said the people of Illinois, through their constitution, decided they wanted their representatives to decide who could be eligible to run for judge.
“Under our constitution you could have only five judicial circuits in the state of Illinois,” Ratz said.
He said the constitution provided five districts and stated there has to be at least one judge in a circuit.
He said legislators could pass a bill tomorrow that each judicial district has one circuit judge.
“We’re going to have five circuit judges in the whole state of Illinois and those circuit judges, they’re going to appoint hundreds of associate judges,” he said.
He said he imagined the plaintiffs would object to that but the people’s right to vote for judges is only as provided by law.
Legislators provide for sufficient numbers of judges, “so that you can get the work done,” he said.
“The legislature certainly has the power to go crazy and eliminate a bunch of judges or pack in too many judges.
“We have elections to decide whether that’s in compliance with the policy.
“What you can’t say is that the legislature doesn’t have that power in the first instance.”
He said what plaintiffs were arguing about was abuse of power.
He began reading People v. Russell, a Supreme Court decision from 1924.
“The possibility that power inferred upon an official by the constitution may be abused affords no basis for a court to hold the power never existed,” he said.
“It would be a greater evil to so hold than is the infrequent evil of abuse or wrongful exercise of powers by public officers.
“If it existed, its exercise was a function properly belonging to the executive in the exercise of what he considered his duty.”
The Court’s decision went on to talk about how a governor or legislators “could undo themselves,” he said.
“They could destroy themselves by using their power in a way that was entirely repugnant to the people and then they lose that next election.”
He said plaintiffs claimed this was done for partisan reasons.
He said that was a feature of the selection process that the people agreed to.
He said they could have panels that would nominate good lawyers to be judges or some sort of computer system.
“The people of Illinois said no, we want to elect our judges, so there are going to be partisan…,” he said.
He stopped himself and said, “Some of the legislators I should say, that are voting for legislation, they may have partisanship in mind.”
“The court looks at the statute and the final product and says okay, is this constitutional or not?
“The court doesn’t peek underneath and say, what was Senator Harmon thinking about when he passed this bill?
“What was the Speaker thinking about when it passed this bill?
“Everyone had their reasons for why they voted.”
Later he explained that the law didn’t prevent Sholar and Threlkeld from running.
He said anybody who wanted to run in the Third Judicial Circuit had to reside in the first subcircuit.
“I could run there if I want to move there,” he said. “We can’t say that just because it might be difficult for me to schlep on down to the first judicial subcircuit, now it’s unconstitutional.”
He said Sholar and Threlkeld could run in Lake County, “but it would be much more expensive for them to do that.”
Three vacancies in Subcircuit 1
The controversial subcircuit legislation was rammed through a Democratically controlled state legislature late at night on Jan. 5, and was enacted by Pritzker on Jan. 7.
It was supported by Metro-East lawmakers Reps. Jay Hoffman (D-Belleville), Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville) and Sen. Rachelle Crowe (D-Maryville).
Madison County Chief Judge Bill Mudge said he was not contacted by lawmakers for input on the need for dividing the county into subcircuits.
The Judicial Circuits Redistricting Act of 2022 upends how circuit judges are elected in Madison County. In effect, only one-third of Madison County voters will decide three circuit court judge races in the November general election, leaving two thirds of county residents unable to vote for any of these three judges who might eventually hear their cases in the future. The legislation is still being fought in court.
Two sitting judges who had announced last year their intention of running for the seats they held by appointment had to move into the gerrymandered Subcircuit 1 to qualify for election – Sholar and Threlkeld – who are Republican.
Two Democrat candidates for judge, Barry Julian and Ryan Jumper, live in the gerrymandered portion of Subcircuit 1 and did not have to move to qualify for election.
Sholar last week filed nominating petitions to run for the position she currently holds by appointment.
On May 1, 2021, Sholar was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to fill the unexpired term of retired circuit judge Richard Tognarelli.
Sholar said in her announcement that she filed her petitions with triple the number of signatures required.
“I personally walked door to door and attended numerous events to get these signatures,” Sholar stated.
“The voters were both happy to sign my petition, but also outraged at the shenanigans that brought us to this place. The voters are tired of politics as usual. They just want their judges to be fair and honest. That is what I have strived for on the bench and I hope to continue.”
Sholar and her family placed their home in Godfrey for sale and moved into Subcircuit 1, in Alton, in January.
“These changes have not made this easy,” stated Sholar, “but every voter I talk to encourages me to keep fighting for what is right.”
The Democrat candidate running for the Tognarelli vacancy is attorney Ebony Huddleston of Alton.
Threlkeld, who was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court in November 2020 to fill the unexpired term of David Dugan, will face Julian.
Republican Tim Berkley will face Jumper for the Mudge vacancy.