After redrawing the state's legislative district map to boost their political power in Springfield, Illinois Democrats have similarly redrawn the lines for various judicial contests in Cook County and some of the state’s other most populated counties, a move critics have called a “gerrymandering of the judiciary.”
On Jan. 5, during a special one-day legislative session, the Democratic supermajority in the Illinois General Assembly approved a plan to rewrite the boundaries of so-called subcircuits within several of Illinois’ largest and busiest local court systems.
Under the changes approved by the Illinois State House and Senate, the state would add five new subcircuits to Cook County, bringing the total number of subcircuits to 20.
Illinois State Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods)
It marked the first time Cook County’s subcircuits had been redrawn since 1991.
Under the legislation, countywide judges who retire would be replaced by judges elected from the various subcircuits.
Lake County’s subcircuits would be doubled from six to 12, and those additional six subcircuits would elect judges to replace retiring judges who had been elected countywide.
The law would create subcircuits in DuPage County for the first time.
And in Kane, Will and McHenry counties for the first time since those subcircuits were created in 2005.
Downstate, the legislation would allow voters in Rock Island, Champaign, Sangamon, Madison, Peoria and other counties, which are part of multi-county circuit court systems, to elect so-called resident judges directly from their counties, rather than from across the entire circuit.
Under Illinois’ state court system, the state’s 102 counties are divided up among 25 judicial circuits.
Cook County and the five surrounding collar counties of DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Lake and Will, each are their own circuit.
Each of those counties’ court systems has been further subdivided into “subcircuits.” Voters within those counties are empowered to select a certain number of judges on a countywide basis. However, voters are also asked to elect judges from within the smaller judicial subcircuit districts, ostensibly giving minority communities within the county at large the opportunity to elect a certain number of judges, as well.
In Cook County, for instance, this has resulted in the election of Republicans as judges, from time to time, from Cook County’s suburbs, even as Democrats consistently sweep countywide judicial elections in the county which includes the Democratic super stronghold of Chicago. Indeed, Republicans have all but given up in even nominating candidates to run for judge on a countywide level in Cook County.
Conversely, the judiciaries in some of the suburban counties, such as DuPage and Kane, have for decades been dominated by Republicans.
In recent years, however, demographic changes, such as burgeoning Latino and Black populations in the suburbs, and certain political events, like the election of former President Donald Trump, have allowed Democrats to make strong inroads in the collar counties, if not gain the outright majority. The Kane County board in 2020, for instance, flipped to Democratic control, and Democrats have dominated congressional elections in Chicago’s suburban districts in the past two elections.
In rewriting the electoral rules in many of the state’s most populated judicial circuits, Democrats said the changes were needed to improve “diversity” on the state’s courts.
State Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, said the changes would create a judiciary that “looks like the circuit it serves.” He said this would improve “faith in the judiciary” in those regions.
Democrats said the changes were needed at this time to complete their work of redrawing the state’s various legislative and judicial district boundaries, following the release of the 2020 Census.
It is not known if Democrats sought the input of the judges who oversee and run those affected court systems.
The chief judges of Cook, Kane and Will counties did not reply to questions submitted by the Cook County Record concerning the subcircuit revamps.
However, when questioned during debate, Harmon flatly admitted that Democrats used “partisanship” when determining how to draw the lines for the new subcircuits, in a bid to try to ensure more Democrats are elected to the state’s courts.
Harmon’s counterpart in the state Senate, Republican Leader Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods, said the admission reveals Democrats intent to inject even more partisanship into the state’s judiciary, which, at the top end, already leans Democratic.
McConchie said the subcircuit revisions continue a pattern by Democrats since last spring.
He noted Democrats, in a surprise move, approved legislation to divide downstate St. Clair County, with a population of about 160,000 people, into a new circuit. That has been seen as a partisan move to counteract the rise of Republican judges in neighboring Madison County, which had formerly shared a circuit with St. Clair.
It was also seen as a gift to the trial lawyers who serve as some of the biggest donors to Illinois Democratic politicians and causes, and who have used the historically friendly courtrooms in Madison and St. Clair counties to press massive amounts of lawsuits, particularly asbestos-related actions, that have made those local courts infamous around the country among legal reformers.
That was followed by Democrats’ decision this year to redraw Illinois State Supreme and Appellate Court districts for the first time, in a move widely seen as a partisan attempt to ensure Democrats don’t somehow lose the majority on the state’s Supreme Court.
McConchie noted the court’s Democratic majority is seen as crucial to help Democrats defeat reform efforts, such as the citizen-initiated effort in 2015 to allow voters to decide if an independent commission should be empowered to draw fairer legislative districts, not the Democratic supermajority in the General Assembly, who critics say use that power to cement their control in Springfield.
Now, McConchie says Democrats are applying the same manipulation to the rest of the judiciary.
McConchie said citizens should take note of the Democrats’ tampering with what should be “independent and fair” courts, merely for partisan advantage.
“This is an unconscionable abuse of power we are seeing here,” said McConchie.