By Jane Lawicki
Two experienced judges are vying for a ten-year term on the Illinois Supreme Court in the 1st District Democratic primary. As no candidates filed for the Republican primary, the winner of the contest likely will run unopposed in the November general election.
The rest of the Illinois Supreme Court appointed Judge Joy V. Cunningham to the court in 2022 to fill the seat vacated by Anne Burke.
Cunningham said the courts need to keep up with technology to function efficiently and exhibit openness to the public, particularly with any perception of maleficence of the general courts and its impact on the country.
“Respect for the rule of law in our country is vital,” Cunningham said. “Why do people accept legal decisions? It’s because they trust and respect that judges, the courts, etc.—that our legal system—are free of politics. Once you start losing that respect, our judicial system starts to erode.”
Cunningham grew up in a working class family that valued education and community service. She received a BS from City University of New York and worked as a nurse for several years before attending John Marshall Law School (now the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law) where she received her JD in 1982.
“I didn’t think that nursing was necessarily my calling,” Cunningham shared. “However, it served me well. I served as a critical care nurse, learned key people skills such as listening. Nursing teaches you patience, empathy, listening—skills you don’t necessarily learn if you’re an administrator or lawyer. I learned how to address complex problems and how to talk with people at their wit’s end.”
Cunningham’s diverse legal career includes serving as senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary for the Northwestern Memorial Healthcare System; Cook County associate judge; assistant Illinois attorney general; a civil litigator; and associate general counsel of Loyola University. In 2004, she became the first Black woman president of the Chicago Bar Association, and in 2006, voters elected her to the Illinois Appellate Court, where she served as chair of the executive committee and co-chair of the diversity committee.
Noting her varied experience, Cunningham said people do not realize the amount of administrative responsibility the Illinois Supreme Court has. While hearing cases is part of what it does, the court also oversees the State’s judicial branch of government.
“Because civics is no longer taught like it used to be, we need to explain our role as the third branch of government and how it relates to the executive and legislative branches,” Cunningham said. “The judiciary is responsible to the other two branches, to try to keep them in their lanes.”
Cunningham also noted the court’s public outreach. Called “riding the circuit,” judges hold official open sessions in different venues, and college and school groups often attend. Local attorneys visit select classes in advance to introduce case briefings before the court discusses them. The next circuit session will be on Thursday, March 21, at Northern Illinois University. Cunningham added the Illinois Supreme Court also coordinates attorney registrations, character review, probation, and juvenile justice.
“There are 102 county courthouses in Illinois, and the Illinois Supreme Court is responsible for the oversight of these buildings and their staff,” Cunningham noted.
Emphasizing her support for reproductive rights and volunteer work with Planned Parenthood, Cunningham noted endorsements from Personal PAC, Independent Voters of Illinois, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the Cook County Democratic Party.
Cunningham said the court chose her for appointment from 24 appellate judges.
“The Supreme Court thought that my experience would be beneficial to the court of Illinois, “ she said, noting her Supreme Court colleagues “gave me high marks” when going through an end-of-year review. “I have credibility, certainty, consistency—which is important to any court system,” she said.
Cunningham and her family live on the North Side. “I’ve had a diverse, successful legal career,” she said. “It’s important that it’s benefitted others. My family valued education. We didn’t have money, but we had values. We valued service. My mom often said, ‘You can’t just pass through this world, you have to do something.’”
For more information, log on to https://joyforjustice.com/.
Jesse Reyes in 2012 became the first Latino elected to the Illinois Appellate Court. With more than 25 years’ judicial experience, Reyes has received the highest ratings from the Chicago and Illinois State Bar Associations, Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois, and Puerto Rican Bar Association.
A longtime resident of Pilsen and Bridgeport, Reyes said that growing up he witnessed injustices in his neighborhood. An avid reader, biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt inspired him, Reyes noted.
Lincoln “spoke for people who couldn’t speak for themselves,” Reyes said. “He served as my inspiration to serve the public. I had other opportunities—law firms, my own shop—but for me, Lincoln’s story and the influence of the neighborhood helped me decide to be a judge, to serve the public both on and off the bench.”
Reyes is the founder and current president of the Diversity Scholarship Foundation, which provides scholarships to diverse law students and free continuing legal education seminars. He is also a founding member and former president of the Illinois Judges Foundation and has served as president and member of several bar associations throughout his career. Reyes supports LGBTQ rights and protecting access to abortion and other reproductive services.
“Women and disenfranchised communities are disproportionally affected by restrictions on healthcare access,” Reyes said. “Through my consistent work with these communities, I helped support the protection of their rights in all respects, including reproductive health.”
Reyes cautions that the judiciary, the third branch of democratic governance, is facing a challenging time and wants to work with the Illinois General Assembly to do things better.
“There are issues outside of Cook County that need to be addressed,” Reyes noted. “For example, representation deserts, where legal representation is needed for child support.” He also wants to address perceived conflicts of interest that have tended to appear in the court system.
“People have the wrong impression of our system of justice,” Reyes said. “There’s the perception of potential conflicts, and I would like to see a system of justice for Illinois that has a third party to help look at and address potential and real conflicts of interest.”
Reflecting on the current procedures, Reyes noted each judge has an individual process for making appointments. “Everything varies, but we should have uniformity in this area, letting people know about vacancies for community representation,” he said. Public announcements, submissions, and vetting all could be possible without taking anything away from the bar associations, Reyes said, noting, “It creates openness to the judiciary, transparency.”
Reyes also pointed to technology and its effect on the judicial system. Noting that records have been on microfiche since 1996, lawyers go to the courthouse and retrieve them. Reyes advocates placing public records on the Internet.
“We have to communicate to the public that records are available; it’s an aspect of transparency,” he said. Likewise, Reyes noted no uniformity exists with remote proceedings via Zoom and Internet access. “There should be uniformity and consistent guidelines on how to proceed,” he said.
Mental health issues are another area of concern, which Reyes said are an “increasingly more prevalent issue in our courts. The Illinois Supreme Court should develop procedures for consistent and fair approaches.”
Reyes received his BA from the University of Illinois Chicago and his JD from the former John Marshall Law School, now UIC School of Law. He and his wife, Terry, continue to live on the Southwest Side of Chicago.
“The Illinois Supreme Court should be reflective of the community at large it serves,” he said. “I look forward to an exciting campaign in which the people will decide who will sit on the highest bench in the Land of Lincoln.” For more information, go to https://justicereyes.com/.