Director of Legislative Affairs
The General Assembly began its spring session Jan. 29. This spring will be a "rules year" for legislative activity.
By its own rules, the General Assembly will consider only (1) appropriation bills implementing the budget and (2) other legislative measures deemed by the Rules Committees "to be of an emergency nature or to be of substantial importance to the operation of government." These words of art will be defined by Senate President James "Pate" Philip and House Speaker Michael J. Madigan. Add in a budget shortfall, redistricting, and an election year, it promises to be a difficult session for the members.
Increase in Law Library Fee. House Bill 3730 (Schmitz, R-Batavia) increases the maximum county law library fee from $10 to $19 but keeps the minimum fee at $2. This fee is assessed against all parties who enter their appearance in all civil actions. The increase is to begin Jan. 1, 2003 and would increase a $1 a year through Jan. 1, 2007. For Cook County, the county board orders disbursements from the fund and the Cook County Board President, with the advice and consent of the county board, may appoint a library committee of not less than nine members, who, by a majority vote, may recommend to the county board advice as to disbursements and the operation of the library.
For Will and DuPage counties, disbursements from the County Law Library Fund must be made by the county treasurer on the order of the chief judge of the circuit court of that county. The chief judge also determines how many and who is hired to operate and maintain the law library. For the rest of the counties, a majority of the resident circuit judges of the circuit court of the county determines the disbursements to be paid by the county treasurer. House Bill 3730 has been referred to House Rules Committee.
Notice of Cancellation of Insurance. House Bill 3754 (Parke, R-Hoffman Estates) amends a number of sections in the Illinois Insurance Code to require insurers to provide notice of cancellation to the mortgage or lien holder identified on the policy declarations or endorsement. Under current law notice is given to the mortgage or lien holder if known. House Bill 3754 has been referred to House Rules Committee.
Different Notice in Tax Sales. Under current law, the county collector must send, by registered or certified mail, a notice to tax sale to the "person shown by the current collector's warrant book to be the party in whose name the taxes were last assessed." This notice must be sent not less than 15 days before the application for judgment and sale of delinquent property. House Bill 3733 (Osmond, R-Antioch) requires that the notice must be sent to the "current owner of record." House Bill 3733 has been referred to House Rules Committee.
DNA Testing for All Felons. House Bill 3717 (Daniels, R-Elmhurst) makes three changes to the statute that requires that certain felons give blood specimens to the Illinois Department of State Police. (1) It expands the specimens that are to be given from blood to blood, saliva, or tissue. It authorizes the State Police to determine which type of specimen or specimens is acceptable for submission to them. (2) Requires any inmate in the Department of Corrections to give these kinds of specimens before his or her release on parole or mandatory supervised release as a condition of that release. (3) Requires that all convicted felons give specimens. Under current law only those convicted of "qualifying offenses," such as violent or sex offenses, are required to give specimens. House Bill 3717 has been referred to House Rules Committee.
Editor
Try to be like Mike
If ever a man seemed so apt at bouncing back from misfortune and letting humor overcome despair, so well-balanced between professional and personal endeavors, so unflappable and indefatigable that his flame just might be eternal, such a man was Michael Bilandic.
It was a shock to learn otherwise over the morning mocha after his untimely death on January 15, but a comfort to know that he had enjoyed the fullest advantages that life offered, and loved every day of it. He turned every kick in the pants into a boost forward.
Lampooned by acerbic columnists and pilloried by political upstarts, Mike Bilandic stuck to his guns and had good reason to boast about his half-century in public service as a lawyer, master in chancery, special assistant attorney general, alderman, mayor, Appellate Court and Supreme Court justice.
"Reporters are always interested in my talent as a photographer or my competition in marathons and triathlons," he mused just before the start of the 1st District admission ceremony in May 1999. "Why aren't they interested in my legal ability?"
Why, indeed? Their ignorance was his bliss. Colleagues on the bench never doubted Justice Bilandic's learned approach to jurisprudence. In 1994, his first year as chief justice, the court's output of opinions leaped 75 percent, and he himself wrote 23 of them. His predecessor as chief wrote only nine the year before.
With his nose out of the books, Mike Bilandic was the consummate "fellow of infinite jest," although less in the Shakespearean mode than Damon Runyonesque. Admission ceremonies in his regime were known for interjections of levity that broke the solemnity.
He seemed tickled last August by the irony of winning the reapportionment lottery when his name was plucked from a stovepipe hat in Springfield to break the inter-party tie. "I'm working on an art project," he quipped. "I'm drawing a new state map!"
The irony was his 1991 dissent in a remap standoff, denouncing the tie-breaking process as an unconstitutional violation of due process. And last November at a Chicago Humanities Festival mock trial on the Florida presidential recount of Hayes vs. Tilden, Justice Bilandic expressed this opinion:
"The courts are generally in disrepute when they become involved in political matters. They should be settled in the political thicket." The latter was lifted eruditely from Felix Frankfurter's prose in the 1946 federal voting rights case of Colegrove v. Green.
No doubt, many of Justice Bilandic's concepts and phrasings in opinions recorded in annals of the Appellate and Supreme Courts will be cited and quoted in future briefs. Tim Eaton points out some of them in his remembrance on page 21, and court colleagues have concurred.
But Mike Bilandic's most significant contribution to Illinois law may have been his patient, gentlemanly way of unscrambling omelets of dissension to create resplendent eggs of court consensus. Knock his politics if you will, but therein, this talent was nurtured.
Icons from the archives
For what is said to be the first time ever in the Midwest, the original Emancipation Proclamation may be seen in Chicago from February 15 to 18. The fragile document will be on display during regular hours at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park.
A decent tribute to both Black History Month and the birth date of Abraham Lincoln, author of the milestone proclamation, the four-day Chicago showing is part of the exhibit, "American Originals: Treasures from the National Archives," that will remain at the nature museum through April 28.
What visitors will see is actually the third and final draft of the proclamation that was promulgated on January 1, 1863, its effective date. Lincoln shared the first draft with his Cabinet on July 22, 1862, and the second version on September 22 after the Union army repelled the Confederates at Antietam.
The primary purpose was to declare certain states in "actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States. . .as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion."
It included the commander in chief's order that "all persons held as slaves within said designated states. . .are, and henceforward shall be, free." Lincoln enjoined "the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense."
He closed by invoking "the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of almighty God" that he had done the right thing. The South damned the proclamation as the work of a fiend, but history has prevailed in upholding its laudable intent.
Following are upcoming dates of special Illinois State Bar Association events and activities. Call (800) 252-8908 for more information. See Law Ed Series pages 12-13 in this issue for a schedule of future seminars.
* * *
Tuesday, Feb. 5 Deadline to submit nominations for Law Enforcement Awards.
Friday, Feb. 15 Deadline to file nominating petitions for ISBA elections.
Tuesday, Feb. 19 President Tim Eaton meets with Cook County governors and Assembly members.
Thursday, Feb. 21, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Family Law Section child representative certification training for 9th and 10th Circuits; Holiday Inn City Centre, Peoria.
Friday, March 1-Saturday, March 2 - High School Mock Trial Invitational, sponsored by the Committee on Law-related Education for the Public; University of Illinois, Springfield.
Tuesday, March 12 125th anniversary commemoration: Special meeting of the Assembly and ceremony in the Old State Capitol, followed by dinner and induction of Laureates of the Academy of Illinois Lawyers at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Springfield.
Wednesday, March 13, 9 a.m. Board of Governors meeting; Crowne Plaza Hotel, Springfield.
Thursday, April 11-Saturday, April 13 Future of the Courts Conference; Oakbrook Hills Conference Center, Oak Brook.
Saturday, April 27 - Ask a Lawyer Day telephone call-ins at the Illinois Bar Center in Springfield and other locations.
Saturday, May 4, 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. - The Lawyer's Workshop, sponsored by the Committee on Minority and Women Participation; John Marshall Law School, Chicago.
Friday, May 10 - Deadline for ISBA election ballots to be returned.
Friday, May 17, 9 a.m. - Board of Governors meeting; Ramada Inn, Fairview Heights.
Friday, May 17 - Women Everywhere: Partners in Service Projects, co-sponsored by the Committee on Women and the Law and the Committee on Minority and Women Participation.
Friday, May 31-Saturday, June 1 - Bar Leadership Conference; Swissotel, Chicago.
Thursday, June 20-Sunday, June 23 - 126th Annual Meeting; Grand Geneva Resort, Lake Geneva.
Thursday, Dec. 12-Saturday, Dec. 14 - Midyear Meeting; Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Chicago.
Justice Thomas to keynote Feb. 23 tribute to scouts
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Robert R. Thomas of Wheaton will be guest speaker for an annual community breakfast Saturday, Feb. 23, that honors Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of the Naperville area.
Sponsored by the Exchange Club Americanism Committee, the "One Nation Under God" event will take place from 8 to 10 a.m. in the Wyndham Hotel, Lisle. Tickets are $20 each, or $90 for a table of six.
To register, mail payment to attorney David G. Wentz at Brooks, Adams & Tarulis, 101 N. Washington, Naperville, Ill. 60540. Checks should be made out to the Exchange Club of Naperville. Call Wentz at (630) 355-2101 for more information.
Appointments, recalls
Cook County Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird has been named presiding judge of the Chancery Division, and Judge William D. Maddux is the new presiding judge of the Law Division. The appointments were announced Jan. 14 by Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans.
A 1974 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law and former assistant state's attorney, Kinnaird has been a judge since 1991. A former secretary of the Chicago Bar Association, she succeeds Albert Green, who retired in October.
Maddux, a 1959 graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, was in private practice until he became a judge in 1991. A past president of the Society of Trial Lawyers, he had been acting presiding judge since Evans was elected chief judge in September.
Judge Evans also announced the addition of two new Chancery Division calendars and the assignment of Judges Gay-Lloyd Lott, Thomas F. Quinn (effective Feb. 19) and Donald J. O'Brien Jr. (effective April 1) to that division.
Former ISBA Assembly member Charles R. Winkler of Winkler & Gorey, North Riverside, was installed Jan. 29 as a judge in Cook County's 14th Subcircuit. He replaces Adrienne M. Geary, who retired Dec. 1, and he will serve until Dec. 2.
Winkler, a 1960 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, took the bench for a previous 14th Subcircuit vacancy from Feb. 9 to Dec. 4, 2000, presiding over jury trials in the 1st Municipal District.
A past president of the West Suburban Bar Association and the Bohemian Lawyers Association of Chicago, he serves on the Illinois Bar Journal Editorial Board and the Committee on Bar Publications.
Retired 14th Circuit Judge Jay M. Hanson of Hillsdale has been recalled to the Henry County bench for the second time to serve from March 1 to May 31. A judge for 22 years, he retired in 1996 but returned in 2000 to fill the vacancy of retired judge John O'Shea.
Defender office moves
The Chicago office of the State Appellate Defender has relocated to the 24th floor at 203 N. LaSalle St., Chicago, from 100 W. Randolph.
Former D.A.s speak Feb. 15
James B. Burns and Scott R. Lassar, former U.S. attorneys for the Northern District of Illinois, will speak to the Appellate Lawyers Association during a luncheon meeting Friday, Feb. 15, at the Chicago Athletic Association. Their topic is "The United States on Appeal."