Page 18 - November 2019 FOP

Supreme Court to review file destruction case one last time
An appeal to the Supreme Court of Illinois is nei- ther automatic nor common.
Recently, Lodge 7 learned that its request to appeal a decision from the Appellate Court (regarding the destruction of disciplinary records within the contractually mandated time frame) had been granted ⁠— and it could not have come at a better time.
Negotiations over a successor collective bar- gaining agreement are underway, and the City is wasting no time in its attempts to change how the department disciplines police officers and tracks their prior disciplinary re-
cords.
First, a quick overview of the judicial process in Illinois. The
Illinois Supreme Court receives thousands of petitions every year from litigants who have been unsuccessful in the Appel- late Court. Over the past three years, the numbers of petitions to appeal have averaged around 2,200 cases per year: 2,402 in 2016, 2,244 in 2017 and 2,208 in 2018. However, only a small percentage is allowed; on average, between 2 and 4 percent are heard by the Illinois Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court ⁠— the highest court of the state of Illinois, consisting of seven
justices elected from the five appellate judicial districts of the state: three justices from the First District (Cook County) and one from each of the other four districts. Justices are elected for a 10-year term, and the chief justice is elected
to a three-year term by the court from its members.
The Supreme Court has mandatory jurisdiction in all capital cases and cases where the constitutionality of laws has been called into question, but only discretionary jurisdiction from the Illinois appellate courts. In other words, the Supremes get to be picky when deciding which cases to
place on their light docket.
A majority vote of four is required to decide a case. The Su-
preme Court currently consists of Chief Justice Anne M. Burke; Robert R. Thomas; Thomas L. Kilbride; Rita B. Garman; Lloyd A. Karmeier; Mary Jane Theis; and P. Scott Neville Jr.
On Sept. 26, the Illinois Supreme Court formally granted Lodge 7’s petition for leave to appeal that had been filed on May 7. By such notice, the Lodge had only 30 days to file all its pa- perwork, including a concise and detailed brief in support of the appeal, which it filed on Oct. 30. The City has until Dec. 4 to file any responsive brief, while Lodge 7 then has until Dec. 18 to file a reply brief.
Turning to the case at hand: As many of you know, Lodge 7
PAT FIORETTO
18 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ NOVEMBER 2019