From the Rockford Register Star

Published: March 14, 2005
Editorial
Revamp of judgeships: Unfair answer to unfair situation

If Gov. Rod Blagojevich needs a reason to veto a bill that would create judicial subcircuits, we have a reason. Five of them.
Kathryn Zenoff, chief judge of the 17th Circuit Court, says that by early April, the court will appoint another associate judge after all. Five of 12 candidates are either African-American or Hispanic.
CHOOSING ONE of those five would accomplish the minority representation on the bench that the bill supposedly aims to achieve. And it would do so without the negatives and risks inherent in the subcircuit plan.
Judge Zenoff had been holding off on the additional associate judge because of the uncertain situation. The House and Senate easily passed a bill that would create smaller subcircuits in the 17th judicial district, which covers Winnebago and Boone counties. The measure was sent to the governor Feb. 9, but he hasn't acted on it. If he doesn't act by April 10, under the state constitution it automatically becomes law.
We have been opposed to this poorly communicated, hastily hatched plan since judicial officials told us about it in January.
Zenoff said she received just two days' notice for a hearing in Rockford on the bill, a date that conflicted with a long-scheduled statewide annual judges meeting. Coincidence? We don't think so.
Under the plan, the 17th Circuit would be divided into four geographic areas, in which voters would elect four of the 22 judges in the circuit. In one of the areas, the minority population would be 33 percent. The premise is that these voters would be more likely to choose a minority judge. In the current system, only three judges are elected by area -- Winnebago and Boone counties -- and those areas have traditionally voted Republican.
Advocates of the plan will tell you this is about minority representation, but it's mostly about politics.
CIRCUIT JUDGES around here are not very diverse, we'll give you that. All nine of them are white; only two are Democrats. But the bench has changed since the 1980s, when there were no Democrats and no women. The evolution is bound to continue.
Equally as disturbing as the lack of minorities is how minority candidates would be limited in where they could live. By dividing up the circuit, it narrows the pool of applicants when an opening does occur.
The pool is already too small. Of 600 licensed lawyers living in Winnebago and Boone counties, only 20 are African American or Hispanic. Judges must be lawyers.
THERE'S SOMETHING else wrong with the subcircuit plan, which applies to McHenry, DeKalb, Lake, Kane, Kendall and Will counties as well. It injects more politics into a profession that should be divorced from politics. A similar plan in Cook County, started in 1989, has raised the costs of running for judge, according to nonpartisan Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice.
Lawyer Venita Hervey is African American and happens to live in southwest Rockford. She says many of her African-American and Latino colleagues live in northeast Rockford. They would gain no advantage from the new subcircuits.
Bad presumptions lead to bad law. We urge the governor to veto this bill.