By David Stanczak
A couple of weeks ago, the Illinois Supreme Court assassinated the people’s attempt at voting reform when it ruled that the Independent Map Amendment proposition signed by 563,000 petitioners was an invalid attempt to amend the Illinois Constitution. Yesterday morning, the court buried the corpse when it refused to grant a rehearing of the case. So much for reform in the former Land of Lincoln.
The result is bad enough, but there’s more. The court was singularly unhelpful and apparently uninterested in arriving at a proper decision. In deciding the case, the 4 person Democratic majority refused to consider the transcripts of the debates at the constitutional convention as evidence of what the framers intended. This is folly. No law or constitutional provision is ever so clear and unequivocal that questions about its meaning may never arise. The clearest possible evidence of what lawmakers, or constitution-makers intended is what they talked about when deliberating the language of the document they produced. That’s why transcripts of the debates were prepared and circulated widely: the convention wanted to leave a paper trail of what it did for posterity, and more particularly for the courts to interpret their document properly. Looking at constitutional convention debates in a search for meaning is nothing unusual; this same court has done it routinely in other cases interpreting this constitution. The majority never gave a reason for refusing to consider the debates, a must when taking such an unusual step. The inference must be that the decision was fore-ordained and the language of the debates was too clear to explain away. So, they ignored it.
The court also didn’t rule on any of the six other arguments the opponents had to the Amendment, leaving itself an opportunity to rule against the amendment on another ground on another day.
Finally, although the proponents begged the court for some clue as to how to permissibly bring this issue to a vote, the court refused without comment.
Anyone who flipped off a judge in court would properly find themselves in contempt real quick. But a majority of the Illinois Supreme Court did just that to the people of the state. Why? Because they can.
David Stanczak, a Forum commentator since 1995, came to Bloomington in 1971. He served as the City of Bloomington’s first full-time legal counsel for over 18 years, before entering private practice. He is currently employed by the Snyder Companies and continues to reside in Bloomington with his family.
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