As an elected delegate to the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention and a practicing lawyer for 28 years, I feel compelled to share my thoughts on the important topic of our judicial-selection process.
It is true that our present method is flawed, but it is not in such a state of calamity as some would suggest. Obviously, there should be some unbiased forum to investigate the professional and personal backgrounds of would-be judges and recommend qualified candidates for selection.
I believe the Chicago Bar Association has done an admirable job in screening candidates. They conducted an in-depth, thorough and meticulous scrutiny of judicial hopefuls. On the other hand, the Cook County Bar Association finds candidates “Not Recommended” without even conducting an interview. In other instances, sitting judges have been appointed to vacancies in conjunction with a $10,000 donation to the Democratic Party. These are some of the problems with our present system that cause confusion and skepticism.
I propose a constitutional amendment that would permit the Illinois legislature to designate the Chicago Bar Association as the official screening agency for judicial candidates in Cook County.
Under this plan, the CBA would be required to incorporate authorized representatives of all other Cook County bar associations into the CBA screening committee, each with a weighted vote based on the number of members in their respective organizations.
This combined group would create a pool of qualified judicial candidates and then would choose judges from that body by lottery, according to their area of residence in Cook County. Thus these mini-lotteries would retain the desired distribution of candidates among various ethnic backgrounds, as well as assure the general public of an experienced and ethical judiciary. The issue of political fealty would also be removed.
