Problems with applied Kremlinology

It was a staple of intelligence gathering during the Cold War Era: Look at the pictures of the officials standing atop Lenin's Tomb at this year's May Day Parade. Compare with those pictured last year. Since the Communists seldom issued press releases on these subjects, the photos were one way to gauge who had moved closer to the center of power and who had been moved further away, perhaps to Siberia.

Don't worry: This is not one of those Capital-P Politics posts that some of my anonymous readers get so upset about.

(Although... as we move inexorably closer to the one-year anniversary of our two-week shutdown, my law practice has dwindled to nothing. I'm more than open to reinventing myself as a Capital-P Political Pundit or Talking Head. I could be just as wrong as any of them -- and just as often -- and for half the money, too!)

But to return to the subject... since neither the AOIC nor the Circuit Court of Cook County sends me a note when a judge decides to hang up his or her robe, I've used the Illinois Circuit Judges by Circuit page of the Illinois Courts website as one way to try to figure out what vacancies might have opened. From your comments recently, it is obvious that many of you do, also.

I learned the hard way, a few years back, that the online list is not always right. Like the Cold War intelligence analysts comparing photos, I compared an old list (which I'd downloaded and saved) to a then-current list. As a result of that exercise, I noticed that a particular judge on the old, saved list was not on the new list. I added this judge to the list of vacancies I was preparing -- and the judge in question, who was very much not retired, thank you, list or no list, was a tad miffed. And I heard about it. And I apolgized for it.

Since that experience, I have learned not to place undue reliance on the Illinois Courts' list of Circuit Judges. But I still look. As I looked this week while trying to prepare my first Who Sits Where of the 2022 season.

I have never seen it so wildly, and obviously, inaccurate. I don't know why. But I can report that the Supreme Court's "website people are taking a look Cook County judges list to update any incorrect entries." In the meantime, for those of you hunting out new vacancies, take the list with a large grain of salt. At least for now.