VI. ELECTION AND TENURE OF JUDGES. In Illinois all judges are elected by popular vote. For the purpose of electing supreme court judges the state is divided into seven districts, and one judge is elected by the qualified voters of each district for a term of nine years. The state outside of Cook County is divided into seventeen circuits. Three circuit judges are elected by the qualified voters of each circuit for a term of six years. Twenty judges of the circuit and twenty of the superior court of Cook County are elected by the voters of that county for a term of six years. Judges of the municipal court of Chicago are elected by the voters of that city for a term of six years. Judges of the probate, county and city courts. hold their office for a term of four years and are elected by the voters of their county or city. The supreme court assigns circuit court judges to duty in the appellate court for a term of three years. Three judges are assigned to each appellate court. In districts in which branch appellate courts are established three additional judges are assigned for each branch. At the present time there are two branches in the first appellate district. All judges are required to reside in the division, circuit, county or district from which they are elected. The election of the supreme and circuit judges is held on the first Monday in June. The election of county and probate judges takes place on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November. Vacancies are filled by election if the unexpired term is over one year, but if they do not exceed a year the governor appoints. Under the first constitution judges in Illinois were elected by a joint ballot of both houses of the general assembly and held their office during good behavior. This method proved to be unsatisfactory, and the popular election of judges was adopted by the constitution of 1848. Popular election of judges has caused little dissatisfaction outside of Chicago and Cook County. In Chicago and Cook County the large number of judges to be elected at each election makes it difficult for the voters to make an intelligent selection of judges. There is some demand for the election of appellate court judges as independent judges and a longer term for some judges has been discussed. The supreme court election districts no longer give equality of representation to the different parts of the state. The present methods of filling vacancies have caused some difficulty. In communities where few judges are elected the personal integrity of a judicial candidate can be easily ascertained by the electors. More difficulty is experienced in ascertaining his technical qualifications, as these are of such a nature that they are likely to be known to few outside of the members of the bar. In metropolitan districts, where many judges are elected by a large electorate, the selection of competent judges by popular election is more difficult. The result in metropolitan districts is that many voters either do not exercise their right to vote, vote blindly, or rely upon the recommendation of others. The bar associations have endeavored to furnish recommendations by holding har association primaries. The results of these primaries are published. However, the influence of party leaders is great, and without their endorsement a candidate is seriously handicapped. The Illinois problem. In Illinois outside of Cook County the voters of each county elect one county judge. The voters of each of the seventeen judicial circuits elect three circuit judges, and the voters of each of the seven supreme court election districts elect one supreme judge. In the nine counties having a population of over 70,000, the voters elect one probate judge. In twenty-six cities the voters elect one city judge; and in one city, East St. Louis, two city judges. In Cook County the voters elect twenty superior court judges, twenty circuit court judges, one probate judge, one county judge, and vote for one supreme court judge. In addition to these, the voters of Chicago elect one chief justice of the municipal court and thirty associate judges. The supreme court judges and the circuit and the superior court judges are nominated by party conventions.1 The following table shows the dates of judicial elections, and the judges to be elected in Illinois. (1) Downstate. June, 1921. November, 1922. June, 1924. November, 1926. June, 1927. JUDICIAL ELECTIONS 1 Supreme Court Judge in 4th District. 1 County Judge in each county. 1 Probate Judge in Kane, La Salle, Madison, Peoria, Rock Island, Sangamon, St. Clair, Vermilion and Will counties. 1 Supreme Court Judge in each of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th Districts. County and Probate judges. 1 Supreme Court Judge in 5th District. In 26 cities 1 city judge is elected every four years. In East St. Louis two city judges are elected every four years. (2) Cook County and Chicago. April, 1919. June, 1921. 1 Superior Court judge. November, 1920. 10 Municipal Court judges. 20 Circuit judges and 1 Superior Court judge. 1 People ex rel. Hoyne v Sweitzer. 266 Ill. 459 (1915). Laws of 1919, pp. 482-484. November, 1922. 10 Municipal judges, 1 County and 1 Probate November, 1924. 1 Chief Justice, Municipal Court, and 10 Judges, Municipal Court. The three circuit judges are elected in each circuit at the same time. This election is held on the first Monday of June each six years, after 1873.2 The election of supreme court judges is also held on the first Monday of June, but is held each nine years after 1879 in the first, second, third, sixth and seventh districts; each nine years after 1876 in the fourth district, and each nine years after 1873 in the fifth district. In any given circuit elections for circuit judges and for supreme court judges will be held at the same time every eighteen years. There is no special date fixed by statute for the election of city judges, but they may not be elected at the time when city officers are elected.3 County and probate judges are elected at the general election, on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The discussion here deals primarily with judges of courts of record, but it should be borne in mind that outside of Chicago justices of the peace and police magistrates are elected for four-year terms. Justices of the peace were abolished for the City of Chicago in 1905, but under the constitution of 1870 they were appointive so long as they existed. Each town in counties under township organization and each election precinct in counties not under township organization is authorized to elect two justices of the peace, and an additional justice of the peace (up to five) for every one thousand inhabitants in excess of two thousand. Justices are elected at the township election in counties under township organization. Police magistrates (with the same jurisdiction as justices of the peace) may be elected in all cities, villages and incorporated towns, and are chosen at city or village elections. Situation outside of Cook County. At no election outside of Cook County are over four judges elected. All voters are called upon to vote for at least five judges, but no voter is called upon to vote for more than eight judges. The election of supreme and circuit judges takes place at a time when no other elections are held. The election of county and probate judges takes place when other officers are being elected, and they are chosen from an area which constitutes the principal unit for political party organization. They are, however, voted upon by a small electorate and the candidates are likely to be known to many of the voters. 2 Hurd's Revised Statutes, Chap. 46, Sec. 12. The Cook County situation. In Cook County a more difficult situation has developed. At the present time the electors in Chicago vote for candidates for seventy-four judgeships. Cook County electors outside of Chicago vote for candidates for forty-three judgeships, and in Chicago Heights an additional judgeship (the city judgeship) is added. At one election twenty-one judges are elected. The circuit court judges and seven of the superior court judges are elected at separate judicial elections. Thirteen superior court judges and the municipal court judges are elected at the November elections. The problem of choosing judges in Cook County is, therefore, different from that for the rest of the state, and the election of judges has not worked as well as in the other counties. Cook County is recognized as a separate judicial unit by the constitution of 1870. If a different method of selecting judges is thought to be desirable for this county or for Chicago, it could be provided without discarding the present method in the rest of the state. Methods of selecting judges. There are three methods of selecting judges in the United States. In thirty-eight states judges of the highest court are elected by the people. In all of these states except one the trial judges are chosen in the same manner. In Florida the trial judges are appointed by the governor although the judges of the supreme court are elected. In four states (Rhode Island, Virginia, South Carolina and Vermont) the judges are elected by the legislature, and in one (Connecticut), they are appointed by the legislature upon nomination of the governor. In five states the highest judges are appointed by the governor subject to confirmation, by the governor's council in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and by the senate in Delaware and New Jersey. The United States judges are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The objections to the popular election of judges have been summed up as follows:4 "We must conclude, then, that an intelligent choice of a judge in the first instance, by a large electorate is a practical impossibility, because the proper qualifications for a judge like those for a doctor or an engineer or a teacher are so technical and personal that very few of the electorate are able to form an intelligent opinion of the merits of a candidate; nor can judges be selected largely on the basis of their attitude toward certain political policies as may legislative and executive officers, for nearly all of the duties judges are called upon to perform can only be properly and impartially discharged by a rigorous ignoring of all such conditions. "What popular elections give us, at best, is an appointment by party leaders, or a popular choice between such appointments; and at The Selection, Tenure and Retirement of Judges, James Parker Hall. Address before Ohio State Bar Association, December, 1915, American Judicature Society Bulletin X, p. 12. worst they give us a clever personal advertiser or a sheer accident-the latter being somewhat likely to happen in districts of relatively low intelligence with a direct primary and a nonpartisan ballot." Election by the general assembly was adopted in Illinois by the constitution of 1818. It was discarded in 1848 in favor of the present system, and there seems to be no desire to go back to the old method. It is said that in Vermont and Rhode Island the judges are almost wholly chosen from among members of the legislature itself." In Illinois the abuse of power by the general assembly was one of the causes for discarding the legislative method of selecting judges. In 1841 the controlling political party in the general assembly believed that the supreme court would make a decision inimical to its interests. In order to prevent this, the general assembly increased the number of judges in the supreme court from four to nine. The new judges appointed by the general assembly were from the political party that was in control of the general assembly." It should be noted, however, that the power of appointment was here coupled with a power in the general assembly to increase the number of members of the supreme court. The advantages of appointment by the executive system are summed up as follows by James Parker Hall in an address before the Ohio State Bar Association in 1915: "The system has certain advantages over either of the elective ones discussed. A single executive can ascertain the fitness of candidates for judgeships incomparably better than the electorate, if he has the will to do so. He can doubtless do this better than can a body as large as the ordinary legislature, granted equally good purposes on the part of both. He is perhaps under less political temptation than are the members of the legislature to trade his judicial appointments for other favors, for he alone can come to a decision about an appointment, while it requires a majority or a plurality of the legislature to elect, and a deadlock may be broken only by a compromise. Most important of all, the responsibility for the appointment is fixed upon a conspicuous official, and in a community where political public influence is educated and sensitive it can influence such an official as it never can the relatively irresponsible members of a somewhat numerous legislative body "Of all methods of selecting judges of which we have actually had considerable experience in this country, that of appointment by the executive has unquestionably produced the, ablest and most satisfactory courts. Of the six states now pursuing this method of choice, the testimony in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Delaware is practically unanimous that the judges are usually admirably fitted to their tasks, and enjoy to the highest degree public and professional confidence in their ability and impartiality." This statement is, of course, one in support of executive appointment and does not call attention to other factors which may explain the favorable judicial situation in states having executive appoint James Parker Hall. The Selection, Tenure and Retirement of Judges, Bulletin X. American Judicature Society, p. 13. Anthony, Constitutional History of Illinois, p. 132. |