Until the recent public charges of judicial misconduct against Supreme Court Justice James Heiple, most Illinois Citizens had not heard of the Judicial Inquiry Board. This Board is the investigational arm of the Illinois Supreme Court that has the purported responsibility to investigate charges of judicial misconduct. Most of the activities of this Board are held in secret.

It has recently been reported that there have been about 150 charges against judges for misconduct each year. Since the public hearings on Judge Heiple, the number of misconduct charges against judges have risen to about 300 per year.

There are only two full time investigators to nvestigate all of these charges. Obviously the investigators cannot perform a very thorough investigation.

But even more important, who were the judges who have been charged by Illinois Citizens with judicial misconduct? Except for Justice Heiple, no names have been released. Is a judge who is under investigation the same judge that is presiding over your case?

Citizens for Legal Responsibility believes that all charges of judicial misconduct should be released to the public immediately upon the filing of the charge by an Illinois resident. Citizens will publicize your valid judicial misconduct charges on its new Internet Web-site. Together we can stop the charade to mislead the public into believing that there is an effective program on disciplining judges.

If requested, Citizen members will review your charge of judicial misconduct before you file the charge with the Judicial Inquiry Board, and make any suggestions that it can offer to strengthen your charge.

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Created August 5, 1997

Last updated December 29, 1998