Eleven associate judge vacancies to be filled in Cook County... at least at this point

Cook County Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans announced yesterday that there are 10 associate judge vacancies to be filled. Applications are available on this page of the Illinois Courts website and must be submitted by February 3.

In keeping with the modern trend, applications may be submitted electronically to the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts (and emailers will have until 11:59 p.m. on the 3rd to send in the application). However, 'wet signature' applications (applications signed in ink) can still be delivered to the AOIC's Chicago office, so long as they are received by 5:00 p.m. on the 3rd. A new application form was promulgated in September 2019; no applications using the old form will be accepted.

The announcement of a new class of associate judges is not a signal that the Pandemic is past; rather, it was triggered by Illinois Supreme Court Rule 39(b), which requires posting of a notice of vacancy when five or more associate judge vacancies exist. One vacancy was created when Associate Judge Franklin U. Valderrama moved to the United States District Court; four others were created when Associate Judges Michael A. Forti, Mary C. Marubio, Celestia L. Mays, and Levander Smith, Jr. were sworn into full Circuit Court judgeships last month.

In a departure from past practice, the Chief Judge's announcement yesterday mentioned all of these by name, as well as the resignations of Associate Judges Earl B. Hoffenberg, Carol A. Kipperman, Macia B. Orr, and the retirements of Associate Judges James N. Karahalios and Richard A. Stevens. If you're keeping score at home, that adds up to 10 vacancies -- but that did not include the vacancy opened yesterday by the appointment of Associate Judge Sanjay T. Tailor to a countywide vacancy.

Casual observers of the process (and first-time applicants) are often astounded by how long it takes to form each new class of associate judges. For example, for the class of associate judges announced in April 2012, applications were closed on November 1, 2010. There were 276 applicants in March 2013; the 13 associates selected from that applicant pool were announced in April 2014. There were 283 applicants in early 2015; 13 new associates emerged from this group in April 2016. A notice of vacancies in January 2017 attracted 272 applications and, eventually, 17 new associates (16 associate judges were announced in May 2018; because of a tie, the 17th was not selected until June). Vacancies announced in August 2018 attracted 212 hopefuls; 15 new associates were selected from this list in December 2019.

One reason that it ordinarily takes more than a year for each new crop of associate judges is that the Chicago Bar Association and each of the Alliance bar groups will be asked to weigh in on the qualifications of each aspirant. That takes time; while many candidates have previously sought judicial office, there are always some newcomers. And, only when the evaluations are done, or largely done, will the Circuit Court's executive committee begin interviewing hopefuls. After the interviews are concluded, the executive committee will select a "short list" from the applicants in the current pool, two for each vacancy. These names are on the ballot submitted to all the eligible full Cook County Circuit Court judges -- and, almost always, the associate judges selected will be on this ballot. (There have been a couple of recent exceptions -- a couple of "write-ins" have been selected without making the short list -- but these were already-serving judges; anyone else attempting a "write-in" campaign would presumably damage, if not destroy, their long-term prospects.)

The announcement of the formation of the next class of associate judges will also depend on the results of the 2020 census.

The number of associate judgeships available in Cook County is set by statute, but is determined by population. The Associate Judge Act provides, in pertinent part, at 705 ILCS 45/2(a), "The maximum number of associate judges authorized for each circuit is the greater of the applicable minimum number specified in this Section or one for each 35,000 or fraction thereof in population as determined by the last preceding Federal census, except for circuits with a population of more than 3,000,000 where the maximum number of associate judges is one for each 29,000 or fraction thereof in population as determined by the last preceding federal census...."

The population of Cook County declined by 182,500 between the 2000 and 2010 censuses. That cost the Cook County Circuit Court six associate judge positions.

Judges are immune from layoffs. But, when an associate judge surplus exists, the death, resignation, retirement, or removal of an associate does not create a vacancy. Thus, because of the decline in the number of associate judgeships required by the 2010 census results, there were only nine vacancies available in the 2012 class.

The final 2020 census figures have not yet been determined. But preliminary figures suggest a population decline of 45,000. The July 1, 2019 estimate shown in the linked table will surely change when the final figures come out. If the number were to stay the same, one existing associate judge vacancy would not be refilled. If the final number is lower than the estimate, more may be lost.

If the county population drop is significant, and several positions thereby eliminated, this year's process might be stretched out, waiting for additional attrition among the ranks of the associates. Time, and numbers, will tell.