In an Order entered yesterday, the Illinoia Supreme Court ordered all appeals and other matters shall "continue to be filed in the judicial districts as they existed on June 3, 2021, until further order of the Court."
The June 3 date is specified because it is day before the June 4 effective date of P.A. 102-011, the act that redraws the State's four judicial districts outside of Cook County. The press release issued by the Supreme Court with yesterday's Order maintains the polite fiction that P.A. 102-011 changes "the judicial district boundaries for the first time since they were established in 1964."
FWIW readers know that this is not quite so. As the linked article explains, the General Assembly tried to redraw the appellate districts in 1997, but that attempt was struck down as unconstitutional in Cincinnati Insurance Co. v. Chapman, 181 Ill.2d 65 (1998). (Section 50 of P.A. 102-011 expressly provides, "The Judicial Redistricting Act of 1997 (which has been held unconstitutional) is repealed.")
Yesterday's Order does not mean that P.A. 102-011 is in any sort of constitutional jeopardy.
It probably does mean, however, that, in their zeal to craft four new appellate districts which would enhance the chances for the election of a fourth Democratic member of the Supreme Court in 2022, the Republicans weren't the only ones with whom the Democratic map-makers failed to consult. The cartographers almost certainly also did not consult with the Clerks of the various Circuit and Appellate Courts in the many affected counties or with those practicing there. You, Dear Reader, many not see this as a particularly troublesome issue -- but if you were, say, an attorney in Wheaton, looking to appeal a judgment from the 18th Judicial Circuit entered 29 days ago, this order comes as a blessed relief.
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3 comments:
The ILSUPCT also likely issued its order because there will be upcoming lawsuits it may have to hear on the issue of using non-decennial census data to draw the districts, which on a plain reading of the applicable statutes is illegal. It is clear that "decennial census" means what it says, and not the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) data, which in addition to being legally invalid, is also reported to be 5 years out of date by some observers. So why should the courts be scrambled like this when a legal challenge will simply undo it all? The effects on judges, clerks, parties to cases, etc. all caused by bogus maps and done for nothing left them no choice.
@Anon 6/8 at 3:26 p.m. -- Thanks for a thoughtful comment. I'm inclined to disagree with you on this, however.
Not that I'm doubting there will be a lawsuit -- of course there will -- but I fully expect that this redistricting act and the legislative redistricting act will both be revisited later this year when the Census data actually comes out. There's not much to 'tweak' with the judicial act, however (can't subdivide counties), so some of the prefatory language will probably be changed and that will be it.
As I understand it, the legislative redistricting act had to be passed, even with the ACS data, to prevent a commission provision from kicking in that would have potentially resulted in a less partisan map or, even, gasp, a Republican one. But that Act, too, will be amended long before any case could get to the Supreme Court.
I just don't think the Court was---or should be, anyway---overly concerned with the ACS issue at this time. I expect it will go away. That doesn't mean the map won't get thrown out for some other reason... I don't pretend to predict the future... but I think my suggested explanation better fits the facts.
The theorized lawsuits have come to pass; so far two suits by two separate groups have been filed in Federal court. See McConchie and Durkin v. ISBE, et al. 1:21-CV-3091, ND IL and Contreres, et al. v. ISBE, et al, 1:21-CV-3139, ND IL
The ACS is central to both suits, so it isn't just going away. And because retroactivity (phew!) is not automatic where Constitutionally prohibited (Souza, et al. v. West Chicago, et al., 2021 IL App (2d) 200047, 2021). Allowing the State to change the rules after the fact would not undo the harms alleged while effectually allowing illegal maps to change the districting.
The avoidance of appointing a committee was of course the Dem's goal throughout, since it could result in the GOP gaining seats. However, in the madcap world of the Illinois Legislature, just like with repeated pension reform failures, the courts are stuck sorting it all out. :/
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