The Illinois Supreme Court has spoken on two high-profile, highly-political cases in the past few weeks. First, in July, the state’s high court ruled the “No Cash Bail” law constitutional using some dubious reasoning. Then, in early August, the court vacated a lower court decision striking down Gov. Pritzker’s so-called “Protect Illinois Communities Act.”
Both cases featured the same four defendants: Gov. JB Pritzker, Senate President Don Harmon, House Speaker Chris Welch in addition to Attorney General Kwame Raoul.
Months earlier, Gov. Pritzker had donated a million dollars to the campaigns of each of the two new Illinois Supreme Court Justices: Elizabeth Rochford and Mary Kay O’Brien. What’s more, Harmon and Welch each donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to each of the candidates as well.
Yet despite accepting donations approaching a quarter of their total campaign funds, these two justices failed to recuse themselves in either case involving those donors.
Not only that, but in the gun ban case, Justice Rochford not only refused to recuse herself, she actually wrote the majority opinion upholding the law.
Indeed, State Rep. Dan Caulkins told The Center Square that the decision was “the best justice money can buy.”
Caulkins also said that he wasn’t sure if he’ll pursue the case in federal court.
In the meantime, we’re saddled with the best court Gov. Pritzker and friends could “buy.”
Elizabeth Rochford, right, during last year’s campaign for the Illinois Supreme Court. She’s holding a cookie with “Moms Demand Action” written on it.
We are presently ruled by an empirical class of ideologues. It’s been some since we’ve had a government by the people and for the people. Governor Big Boy cares little if at all for the people. All he cares about is exerting an ever increasing amount of control over the otherwise law abiding populace.
Well, we all knew that was coming. The US Constitution is but a piece of paper in Lord Prickster’s fifedom. Sure wish there was a way clearly unconstitutional crap laws like this could be wiped out quickly, without slogging through the court system.
The government we deserve in IL. Unfortunately, there are a lot of us South of I-80 who don’t deserve this shit. Some of us are even bordering on pissed off about it.