386 of 391 Illinois associate judges receive new 4-year terms

Three hundred eighty six of the 391 Illinois associate judges seeking reappointment for new four-year terms were retained by their colleagues in each of Illinois' 24 judicial circuits, according to an announcement issued today by the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts.

The appointments of all associate judges serving in Illinois, even those appointed recently (Judge James A. Wright, for example, appointed after a runoff only last June, and his 16 classmates, all sworn in last June 29) were set to expire on June 30 (under Supreme Court Rule 39(a)(1), the terms of all Illinois associate judges "expire on June 30th of every fourth year subsequent to 1975, regardless of the date on which any judge is appointed"). Only those associate judges seeking reappointment and retained by a vote of three-fifths of the sitting full circuit judges in their respective circuits, would be permitted to continue in office.

(Spoiler alert: Judge Wright and his classmates were all retained.)

The nearly 99% retention rate this year is slightly better than the roughly 98% retention rate in 2015 (when 376 of 384 associate judges were retained).

But in 2015, all 140 Cook County associate judges seeking a new four-year term were retained; this year, while 137 Cook County associate judges seeking reappointment were retained, one, Judge Richard Denis Schwind, was not.

Schwind became as associate judge in 2012; at the time of his 2012 appointment he was serving as an Assistant Illinois Attorney General. He was a finalist for associate judge in 2009.

Last fall, Judge Schwind was assigned to administrative duties following a media report in which Schwind was quoted as telling an African-American criminal defendant, during sentening, "You were never a slave." (Click here for FWIW post.) Schwind was one of four judges recently rated "not recommended" for retention by the Chicago Bar Association.