OPINION: Latinos deserve a seat on Illinois Supreme Court

Chicago Sun-Times, Jul 20, 2023, By Jose M. Mu?oz?and?Jennifer Crespo

The Illinois Latino Agenda, a coalition of 26 nonprofit leaders from Chicago’s largest Latino-serving organizations, is committed to achieving Latino equity at the highest levels of government, including the Illinois Supreme Court.

The Latino population in Illinois is at an all-time high, with Latinos comprising 18% of the state’s population and 26% of?Cook?County’s population. Population data shows that Latinos are here to stay. We are not going anywhere but up. Despite this growth and our upward mobility, Latinos are and have always been unrepresented on the Illinois Supreme Court.?

Five years ago, former Chief Judge Ruben Castillo of the U.S. District Court for the Northern?District of Illinois hosted the first-ever State of Latinos in the Law Symposium. On that?historic day, leaders from the academic, legal, and public policy communities joined together to?identify root causes for the dire lack of Latino representation among law students, law?professors, big law firm associates and partners, public sector attorneys, and most important, judges. The goal, in addition to identifying the challenges, was to define strategies to rectify?these blatant gaps in the overall legal profession.

Since that day in October 2018, the Latino legal community and its network of supporters and advocates have tirelessly worked to close the gaps identified at the symposium by creating pipeline programs at the high school and law school levels and within the practice of law.?We have encouraged and supported our colleagues to pursue legal and executive roles in government, with some successes to celebrate, such as the appointment of former Deputy Governor of Education Jesse Ruiz, a Latino lawyer who successfully led our state’s education system.?We have also celebrated the achievements of Latina attorneys who have been elected to represent their districts in the Illinois Legislature, such as State Reps. Eva-Dina Delgado and Lilian Jiménez, both from Chicago. Most importantly, we have relentlessly advocated for increasing Latino equity in the judiciary, resulting in more than 50 active Latino state court judges, including two on the Illinois Appellate Court.?

The Latino law community has done its part to build a pipeline of qualified Latinos for the judiciary, including for the Illinois Supreme Court. Now it’s time for the Cook County Democratic Party to do its part. While we appreciate the party’s work to promote more Latinos to the bench in circuit courts, we cannot accept a lack of support for a Latino candidate for the Illinois Supreme Court, given the large and increasing pool of qualified and outstanding Latinos in the Illinois legal field.

There is at least one highly qualified Latino jurist who announced his candidacy for the Illinois Supreme Court in time for the party’s slating consideration for the March 2024 primary.?Other qualified candidates could get into the race, but will not have the chance to earn slating from the party, which would give voters the best opportunity to elect a Latino to the state’s highest court in next year’s election. If elected, this jurist would be the first and only Latino to hold this seat. That chance largely hinges on whether the party will live up to its ideals of equity and inclusion during the months leading up to the election.

Unfortunately, the party has a history of repeatedly overlooking well-qualified Latinos for vacancies and positions on the Illinois Supreme Court. Most recently, the party missed its chance last year to end a long-standing inequity on the state’s highest court when it failed to support a Latino to replace former Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne Burke. The set-up of the court and the anticipated retirements of its justices make it unlikely that another opportunity to elect a Latino justice will arise before 2031. We must not wait that long. The decisions the Illinois Supreme Court makes and the composition of its bench impact all communities at every level.?

Latinos deserve and are prepared to serve on the Illinois Supreme Court. The Cook County Democratic Party must epitomize justice and our shared values by slating a Latino candidate for the 2024 Illinois Supreme Court primary election. The time to embrace the inclusion of Latinos on the court is now.?

Jose M. Mu?oz is co-chair of the Illinois Latino Agenda. Jennifer Crespo is president of the Hispanic Lawyer’s Association of Illinois.