House Speaker Michael Madigan
(Chicago, IL) — March 21, 2010. House Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego) wants House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) to deep-six his constitutional amendment to require Illinois judges to have at least 10 years of experience as a lawyer.
Madigan’s plan, Constitutional Amendment 57, would require that a judicial candidate be a licensed attorney for at least 10 years to become a circuit judge, 12 years for an appellate justice, and 15 years for a Supreme Court justice.
Cross, who is pushing his pet legislative redistricting constitutional amendment, CA 56, as a tool–in the absence of competent election campaigns–to gain majority control of the House, opposes Madigan’s amendment.
“We believe it is a tactic by the Speaker,” said Cross, who sent Madigan a letter seeking to stall the amendment, according to the State Journal-Register‘s Brian Feldt.
Constitutional amendments must be approved by voter referendum on a general election ballot, and there is three-amendment maximum to the ballot.
Cross is worried that his tactic, er, amendment–and his hope of gaining a House majority–will get squeezed off the November ballot by the multitude of competing amendments seeking to elbow themselves into one of the three slots.
It probably will.
Gov. Pat Quinn
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