Vote YES to Retain Justice Karmeier

Few political races ever fired me up--and flat out made me angry!--as much the issue of retaining Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier this year. A man of integrity is being unjustly attacked by attorneys who are trying to buy the judiciary.

I don't have the time to go into all of the details, but you can investigate this for yourself. The trial lawyers have a huge case pending before the Illinois Supreme Court. Cases don't get to the Illinois Supreme Court unless there is some legitimate doubt about their outcome. There are reportedly $1.7 billion dollars in attorney's fees that are contingent on this case. The seven justices on the Illinois Supreme Court, based on their positions in similar cases, appear to be about split on it. Karmeier and three other justices seem likely to rule against trial lawyers, while the remaining three justices seem likely to rule in their favor. Karmeier happens to be up for retention vote this year, so if the trial lawyers could get him off the court, they would at least have a 50-50 chance of getting someone who would rule their way to replace him...and if they can get that done, they are likely to win the $1,700,000,000 in legal fees when this big case gets decided in the next few months. 

Let's put that number in perspective.  If there are 50 lawyers working on the case, that means each one of them will make around THIRTY FOUR MILLION dollars! Or, if there are 100 lawyers working on the case, they can each easily retire on their $17,000,000 take. If there are 600 lawyers working on the big case, that means they will take nearly $3,000,000 apiece! Even if the fees are spread among 1,700 lawyers, each gets a million bucks ...if Justice Karmeier is no longer on the Illinois Supreme Court.

So these lawyers are going to stoop to about any depth to remove Justice Karmeier! Based on the many mailings received in my household, that depth is sickeningly low. They are resorting to gross misrepresentation of rulings he has been involved in for many decades. One of the things that even these mailings prove: Justice Karmeier rules based on the law, not on feelings. He decides cases based on what the law actually says, not based on how popular a ruling might later be when analyzed by political opponents.

Note that for the last ten years, he is just one of seven justices on the Illinois Supreme Court, so he has no power to do anything alone...any decision of the court has to have the concurrence of at least three other justices. Karmeier is not out of the mainstream, as the dirty mailings would like to imply.

Don't be suckered by the emotional garbage ("Oh, you couldn't vote for someone who was soft on a murderer, would you?"). Just follow the money, and you know what is behind the false demonizing of this good man. As yourself what might you be tempted to do for seventeen hundred million dollars? Do you think the trial lawyers might succumb to that temptation? They have. Don't let them buy the judges who will hear their cases!

Vote YES to retain Justice Karmeier.