Money, Politics, State Judges

Public Financing of Judicial Elections? Only if Lawyers Pay For It.

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Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, the guy who replaced Rod Blagojevich, wants to institute public financing for judicial elections. He’s set up a commission and everything!
The latest proposal floating around the Illinois statehouse would require lawyers to foot the bill on behalf of campaigning judges. A tipster reports:

[Pat Quinn] has proposed public financing of judicial elections beginning in 2010. Of course, Illinois, like many big states, is deeply in dept, so the governor plans to pay for this “reform” by taxing each lawyer $50, as an extra charge on his or her annual bar registration fee. Needless to say, many lawyers see this as bad policy and a terrible precedent. Why should a government, which has no money, pay for the cost of judicial campaigns, or transfer the cost to lawyers?

I’m surprised the government hasn’t put more “sin taxes” on the legal profession already. Should lawyers have to pay for a judge’s campaign? Probably not. Are you going to get the general public to rally to the defense of lawyers? Certainly not.
But it’s not too late to act. More details about the plan after the jump.


There is another interesting part of Quinn’s plan:

The funding is to come from assessing each Illinois lawyer a $50 surcharge on his or her ARDC registration fees and a $1 fee on litigants who file civil actions.

Great, so now were are taxing lawyers and litigants. It’s not just a plan to make judicial elections free, it’s also a plan to ensure that judges are the only people who can make it into a courtroom.
(Yes, I know, it’s only a dollar on top of the normal filing fees. But it’s the principle of the thing.)
Taxing lawyers and civil litigants is still just a proposal, which means interested parties can still affect the legislative process. The Illinois State Bar Association is practically begging people to leave a comment about this proposal. You can do so here.
Or maybe you think attorneys should defray the costs of judicial elections? If it stops one person from entering the profession, that is one more job for the rest of us.
ARDC surcharge for judicial elections [Illinois State Bar Association]

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