Illinois Judicial Bored

(Judge Travis Richardson during campaign speech "joking" about asking for campaign money ... Photo Credit: Chicago Tribune)

We are bored by judicial ethics. Others exploit our apathy, to our detriment. Consider our state supreme court, where judges amass millions of dollars for election campaigns. Lloyd Karmeier raised $4.8 million to win a supreme court seat in 2004. This included $350,000 from State Farm Insurance. To critics, this looked like influence peddling. State Farm was facing a $1 billion judgment won by the company’s policyholders. Justice Karmeier refused to remove himself from the case. Voting with a 4-2 majority, our supreme court reversed the lower court’s huge award of damages.

Justice Karmeier did nothing illegal. Nor did he violate the Code of Judicial of Conduct. In Illinois, wealthy donors— business groups, labor unions, and special interest groups— flood judicial campaigns with legal donations. We pay a price for this, however: Our judges appear to be bought, even if that is not actually the case. Just as bad, most of the money comes from outside our state. The one certain loss is our confidence that our courts are impartial.

That’s for elections. Do our judicial ethics allow a judge to peddle himself for a speaking fee to Illinois groups? The Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board is trying to answer that question. In August, a disciplinary complaint was brought against Justice Robert Steigmann. It alleged three violations of the Illinois Judicial Code, all stemming from the judge’s solicitation of speaking engagements for up to $1,250 per presentation. Justice Steigmann’s ads targeted law enforcement agencies and health care groups; were drafted on the court’s stationery; and in one instance stated, “Given the value I bring to these presentations, I think I am a cheap date.” 
This situation isn’t so funny. The idea behind the complaint is that Illinois judges should not be dating a potential litigant in their courts. But Justice Steigmann appears to have a good argument. Our ethics code—perhaps the most out-of-date in the nation— doesn’t expressly prohibit this money grab. Rule 62 states that a judge “should … conduct himself or herself at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.” Nothing is mandatory in Rule 62; and it says nothing about speaker fees.

In February, Cook County Judge Travis Richardson “joked” about seeking campaign contributions in a meeting before the Blue Island City Council— again, not so funny. When a city employee publicly objected to the judge asking for campaign money, her job was eliminated within hours. In a Chicago Tribune interview I noted, “The Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board rarely deals with complaints about fundraising and campaigning — the state lacks appropriate ethics rules.” In the same article, Kathy Twine, Executive Director of the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, disagreed: “If someone files a complaint about this, it will be handled expeditiously.”

As of May 1st, however, no complaint against Judge Richardson is reported on the Board’s website. What Ms. Twine did not state is why she can’t or won’t file a complaint. If the reason is that the board does not issue a complaint of its own initiative when it is apprised by the public of a case like Judge Richardson’s, then the code is pretty worthless. Really, why should anyone acting alone complain about a judge’s ethical conduct? To lose their job? To risk angering not just one judge, but many Illinois judges by asking hard questions? To seek discipline when the code is so lax that common sense breaches of the public’s trust can’t be disciplined? And why don't ethical judges insist on a togher code and better enforcement? In Illinois, money is the mother’s milk of politics. The fact that money is tied to influence in Illinois courts may bore us—but not our judges, nor their patrons.