All Cook County judges are elected.
Many -- most -- are elected by the people, either countywide or from one of the 15 Cook County subcircuits. These are the "full" Circuit Court judges.
But some Cook County judges are elected by the "full" Circuit Court judges. These are the Associate Judges.
There's an election going on for Associate Judges right now, also. It's been going on since February 8 of this year; that was the deadline for interested lawyers to send in their applications (click here to see the list of those who applied). It will most likely be going on throughout the primary season, too. Eventually a nominating committee, composed primarily, if not exclusively, of presiding judges, will interview every one of the 272 applicants (at least every one of those who does not drop out along the way).
The nominating committee's function is to promulgate a "short list" of finalists -- winnowing down that long list of applicants into a list containing twice as many vacancies as there are vacancies. This may not happen until April or May of next year. (We don't know how many vacancies there are in the associate judge ranks at the present time. There have to be at least five before the process begins in Cook County. The number of vacancies is likely to increase while the process drags on. The largest number of vacancies filled at one time that I can remember was 31. This was in 2007.)
In any event, when the short list comes out, the rest of the judges have a brief time -- a few weeks at most -- to evaluate the finalists and decide from among them. Mostly, they do. However, in both of the last two associate judge classes, at least one associate judge was elected who was not on the short list.
Presumably, all the current associate judge candidates already know this. But there may be some FWIW readers who don't know how the AJ process works. Without some context, this announcement from the Alliance of Illinois Judges might be confusing.
But enough context. The AIJ is asking associate judge candidates to provide their ratings and résumés and to respond to a questionnaire. The first link in the paragraph above will take you to it (and associate judge candidates will find directions there about how to return completed questionnaires and other requested materials). These are the questions that the AIJ is asking associate judge candidates to answer:
Many -- most -- are elected by the people, either countywide or from one of the 15 Cook County subcircuits. These are the "full" Circuit Court judges.
But some Cook County judges are elected by the "full" Circuit Court judges. These are the Associate Judges.
There's an election going on for Associate Judges right now, also. It's been going on since February 8 of this year; that was the deadline for interested lawyers to send in their applications (click here to see the list of those who applied). It will most likely be going on throughout the primary season, too. Eventually a nominating committee, composed primarily, if not exclusively, of presiding judges, will interview every one of the 272 applicants (at least every one of those who does not drop out along the way).
The nominating committee's function is to promulgate a "short list" of finalists -- winnowing down that long list of applicants into a list containing twice as many vacancies as there are vacancies. This may not happen until April or May of next year. (We don't know how many vacancies there are in the associate judge ranks at the present time. There have to be at least five before the process begins in Cook County. The number of vacancies is likely to increase while the process drags on. The largest number of vacancies filled at one time that I can remember was 31. This was in 2007.)
In any event, when the short list comes out, the rest of the judges have a brief time -- a few weeks at most -- to evaluate the finalists and decide from among them. Mostly, they do. However, in both of the last two associate judge classes, at least one associate judge was elected who was not on the short list.
Presumably, all the current associate judge candidates already know this. But there may be some FWIW readers who don't know how the AJ process works. Without some context, this announcement from the Alliance of Illinois Judges might be confusing.
But enough context. The AIJ is asking associate judge candidates to provide their ratings and résumés and to respond to a questionnaire. The first link in the paragraph above will take you to it (and associate judge candidates will find directions there about how to return completed questionnaires and other requested materials). These are the questions that the AIJ is asking associate judge candidates to answer:
The AIJ has set a January 8, 2018 deadline for responding.
- List your community service including civic, bar association and legal community activities.
- List your activities that directly impacted the LGBTQ community.
- Provide a personal statement that includes the reasons for your interest in the judiciary.