Litigation

Embattled IL Justice to be Court?s Chief

By Peter Hardin

Justice Thomas Kilbride of the Illinois Supreme Court will be elevated to chief justice shortly before the November retention election that determines his future.

The state Supreme Court today elected Justice Kilbride to serve as chief justice starting Oct. 26, upon the retirement of Chief Justice Thomas Fitzgerald, according to a St. Louis Business Journal article. Justice Fitzgerald said this week he will step down for health reasons.

Justice Kilbride had gained the most seniority on the court of justices who have not served as its chief, the Bloomington Pantagraph reported. The court’s chief justices serve a three-year term.

Groups that are displeased with rulings by the high court are working to deny re-election of Justice Kilbride.  He and a majority of the court issued a highly controversial decision last spring. They found unconstitutional a law that limited the sums that doctors and hospitals could be sued for (see Gavel Grab).

The drive to unseat Justice Kilbride “is part of a growing national trend in which groups representing doctors, hospitals, manufacturers and other businesses that are often sued work to reshape the judiciary,” Illinois Statehouse News reported.

One group targeting Justice Kilbride is the Illinois Civil Justice League. It gets much of its funding from such business groups as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In the face of what may be an ugly campaign against him, Justice Kilbride was reticent recently to discuss cases before the court. “Ideally, I hope voters are informed about my entire record and reject the attack that’s coming,” he told the Peoria Journal Star.

He also alluded to concerns raised by retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who has warned about the threat to fair and impartial courts posed by big spending in judicial elections. “I agree with her that an influx of more special interest money is not good for our court system,” Justice Kilbride said.

Illinois ranked fourth in the country for fundraising for state Supreme Court elections in the past decade, the Peoria newspaper said, as it cited from a new report co-authored by Justice at Stake, entitled  ?The New Politics of Judicial Elections 2000-2009: Decade of Change.?

Retired Circuit Judge Martin Conway, who supports Justice Kilbride, said the state legislature overstepped its boundaries in the case leading to the high court’s controversial ruling on medical malpractice caps. “If the other side does not like the Constitution, then go to the polls and get the people to change it,” he said.

The ?New Politics? report was co-authored by the Brennan Center for Justice, the National Institute on Money in State Politics and Hofstra law professor James Sample. Learn more about it from Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on September 16, 2010 (boomark / email).