Thursday, January 27, 2011
Media / Politics / News Bites / Clout City Rahm Stays on Ballot; Justices Rage: Read All About It
Posted by Michael Miner on 01.27.11 at 09:51 PM
Thursday, the justices of the Illinois Supreme Court weren't so fancy. They unanimously ruled that Rahm Emanuel can stay on the ballot as a candidate for mayor of Chicago. Here's their ruling. Read it.
They got very unpleasant.
The majority, justices Thomas, Thomas Kilbride, Rita Garman, Lloyd Karmeier, and Mary Jane Theis, either found Monday's appellate ruling that, by a two-to-one margin, briefly tossed Emanuel off the ballot genuinely contemptible, or they felt scorn would bulwark their argument. Justice Bob Thomas, a former Bears placekicker, wrote the ruling as if channeling Mike Ditka.
Thomas asserted that residency law in Illinois was settled from 1867 through January 24 of this year, that is, until the appellate court "issued its decision and announced that it was no longer bound by any of the law cited above....but was instead free to craft its own original standard." Much more sarcasm and ridicule ensued. Wrote Thomas, blowing off the appellate court, "Its reasons for departing from over 100 years of settled residency law are hardly compelling and deserve only brief attention."
Justices Anne Burke and Charles Freeman concurred in the majority's conclusion that Emanuel should be restored to the ballot. But they not only disagreed with the majority's reasoning but denounced it. "The tone taken by the majority today is unfortunate," they declared, because residency law in Illinois is anything but clear. The majority said otherwise, but "this is simply not true." In the view of the dissenting justices, the majority dealt with inconvenient precedents by ignoring them. And as for the tone it took — shameful. "Spirited debate plays an essential role in legal discourse," they wrote. "But the majority opinion here and the appellate dissent cross the line. Inflammatory accusations serve only to damage the integrity of the judiciary and lessen the trust which the public places in judicial opinions."
The last time Thomas was hammered that hard in print, it was by a newspaper columnist in Kane County. Thomas sued him.
Comments (6)
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When Robert Thomas took the reigns as Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, he declared it his mission to improve civility between and among lawyers, their clients and judges in Illinois. To that end, he even initiated the Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism that was established by the Court in 2005.
And now this.
In the legal realm, it seems, sometimes words speak louder than actions.
-- MrJM
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Sounds like Thomas and the majority engaged in a little "political shimmy-shammy." (obscure reference to his lawsuit against the Kane County Chronicle and its former columnist Bill Page) In all seriousness, Thomas has added nothing to our state. From his obnoxious campaign running the court (where he fought as dirty of a judicial race as I've ever seen, against two genuinely good people in then-incumbent Justice Louis Rathje and Bonnie Wheaton) to his thin-skinned suit against the Kane County Chronicle, Thomas has proven that he's exactly the kind of guy that Illinois should *not* have on its Supreme Court. And yet, we're stuck with him. In the end, Bill Page had it half-right -- while Thomas may never have committed official misconduct (as Page had contended), Thomas clearly has politicized the state judiciary in a major way. Very sad.
Just as soldiers in the military do not lose residency status, neither should Rahm Emanuel. He was serving the President of the United States. He should not lose residency status under those conditions. Taking a job in a law firm in Washington DC would change everything. Serving the country is serving the country no matter how anyone slices it.
And, this comment comes from a volunteer for another mayoral candidate. I have no interest in seeing Mr. Emanuel succeed as the next mayor of this city.
@ citizenincommunicado: Taking a big fat job in Washington that will likely lead directly to a rapid succession of seven-figure jobs in the private sector (if the Chicago mayor's job doesn't open up, revealing even plummier vistas) for hauling their filthy corporate water in the halls of government is not quite the same as serving your country by getting sent off to Af-friggin-ghanistan to get shot at or roadside bombed.
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The Rahm Ruling
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- Jan 27, 2011
