Madigan letters offer glimpse of clout in Cook County judge selection

chicagotribune.com


Madigan letters offer glimpse of clout in Cook County judge selection

House Speaker Michael Madigan and other politicians often weigh in on the selection of Cook County associate judges — a process supposed to be free of political influence.

By Jeff Coen and Todd Lighty, Tribune reporters

11:20 PM CDT, April 15, 2011

The letters from Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan are short and to the point.

"Dear Judge," begins one, written on Madigan's General Assembly stationery. "I believe that these people would be excellent members of the judiciary."

Tucked into the letter to Cook County's Circuit Court judges are the names of a handful of lawyers, blessed by Madigan to fill judicial openings.

Madigan's letters provide a glimpse of his influence in what passes for merit selection of associate judges, who are chosen by the county's 275 circuit judges.

Many of those full circuit judges were publicly elected with the help of the Democratic Party that Madigan controls — and the judicial slating committee run by Ald. Edward Burke, 14th. While the party wields overt power in those elections, the process of picking associate judges is touted as a way for talented lawyers to make the bench without bowing to political bosses or wooing uninformed and uninterested voters

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Editor's note:  Your ProbateShark would sound sarchastic if he stated that he was "shocked" by the very innuendo of impropriety of "clout" being applied in the selection of judges in Cook County.  The Cook County Court system has been long reputed to be a "criminal activity".  What astounds ProbateShark is that Mr. Coen would even print an incipient article, soft peddling this clout as an every day occurrence that has no effect on the citizens.  Msrs. Coen and Lighty, spend some time on the 18th floor of the Daley center and watch families and helpless disabled wards being destroyed by the bunch of crooks inhabiting the Probate Court of Cook County.  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com