Third District Appellate Judge Robert Carter of Ottawa says replacing a friend who lost his Illinois Supreme Court retention vote isn’t the way he would have asked to be on the court. But the other justices asked Carter to fill the Tom Kilbride vacancy.
The vacancy is happening because Republicans turned Justice Kilbride’s retention into a referendum on Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. As campaign fodder, the results of rulings against redistricting reform and term limits resonated with voters more than the reasons for them. And so, Kilbride fell short of the 60% yes votes needed to stay on the court.
Carter won’t face that challenge, since he plans to retire from the court in two years when the seat is up for election. But having started his law career as a clerk for the late Illinois Supreme Court Justice Howard Ryan, he learned early on to word everything carefully. Political opponents and voters may not pay attention to the words. But attorneys may quote a judge’s work for many years after and incorporate them into arguments in cases that have little to do with the original issue.
Carter says he wants everyone to understand why court works the way it does. He wants the person he’s ruling against to understand the reason.
Carter has been on the Third District Appellate Court since 2006. Leaving that court means there’ll be a vacancy there. It’ll be up to the Illinois Supreme Court to fill it.
Judge Carter says more in this interview: