LETTER: Wrong to burden judges with irrelevant partisanship

To the Editor:

I read a letter from the Chairman of the La Salle County Republican Central Committee calling for wholesale “No” votes on judicial retention with complete revulsion. He, and the holders of that sentiment, have no understanding of the importance of judicial independence or of the constitutional purpose of retention ballots. The Illinois Constitution requires our current system of contested initial elections of judges, which necessarily involve party affiliations.  But the Constitution also provides for non-partisan, uncontested retention votes thereafter. The retention judges do not appear on the ballot with any party identification. It was nonsensical for the Republican chairman to call for negative votes on any judicial candidate who initially ran as a Democrat. It also betrays an overt intent to inject partisanship into the judiciary, when the Constitutional plan is to remove it as much as possible.

For many years, I have practiced extensively before each of those judges – Thomas Kilbride on the Supreme Court, Mary McDade on the Appellate Court, and Eugene Daugherity and Joseph Hettel on our local circuit court. They have each served with fidelity and great distinction. No lawyer ever thinks of any of them as either Republican or Democrat judges. I respectfully suggest to the voters that those judges each completely deserve your “Yes” votes to retain them. I am completely certain that they will continue to faithfully discharge their duties.

Competent and independent judges are absolutely essential to the fair administration of the rule of law, which in turn is the most important assurance of our freedoms. It takes great courage to fairly do the daily work of judges. It is wrong to attempt to burden them further with this type of irrelevant partisanship, especially at a time in our country’s history when we should be honoring our constitutional structures, rather than blatantly working at cross-purposes.

Michael T. Reagan
Ottawa