Litigation

JAS Director Urges Reforms in Illinois

By Charlie Hall

Bert Brandenburg, director of Justice at Stake, testified Tuesday before Illinois legislators, urging that they approve public financing, as well as tougher disclosure laws to reveal special interest spending, to reduce the potential conflicts caused by free-spending state court elections.

According to an article by Gatehouse News Service:

“We want to protect the sanctity of judicial impartiality,” Comptroller Dan Hynes said during his testimony in front of the Joint Committee on Government Reform, a bipartisan panel formed earlier this year in the wake of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s arrest on corruption charges.

The article noted that Brandenburg told the panel that “judicial campaigns all across the country have become more expensive and reliant on contributions from attorneys, interest groups and others with a stake in the outcome of court cases. … One example, he said, is a 2004 Illinois Supreme Court contest in which the two candidates spent a combined $9 million.”

“This escalating race for cash has left many judges feeling trapped in a bad system,” Brandenburg told the committee.

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).