Lloyd A. Karmeier
Fresh off his three-year stint as chief of the state’s top court, Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier announced he will leave the bench in December 2020.
In a short letter sent last week to new Chief Justice Anne M. Burke as well as the court’s administrative director, Karmeier stated he will resign his post four years before his current 10-year term is set to end.
“Please be advised that, effective December 6, 2020, I will be resigning my office as Judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois, Fifth District,” the letter, dated Oct. 29, says. “It has been a privilege serving the People of Illinois.”
The seat will be filled during the 2020 election cycle by voters in the 5th Judicial District, comprising 37 counties in southern Illinois. Though geographically large, the 5th District is home to only about one in 10 Illinois residents, according to 2010 U.S. Census records.
The filing period for Supreme Court vacancies is open from Nov. 25 through Dec. 2. Democrats and Republicans must file 0.4% of the number of votes cast from their judicial district for their party’s candidate in the 2018 gubernatorial race.
To participate in the March 17, 2020, primary election, Republican hopefuls in the 5th Judicial District will need to submit 1,010 valid voter signatures. Democratic candidates there must gather 776 signatures, according to the State Board of Election’s “2020 Candidate’s Guide.”
Karmeier’s announcement means there will be two open elections for seats on the seven-justice court in 2020. Cook County voters will vote to fill the vacancy created by former justice Charles E. Freeman’s retirement in June 2018.
The court appointed P. Scott Neville Jr. to Freeman’s seat last year, and he is one of at least eight candidates vying for the seat in the March 17 Democratic primary.
In 2004, then-Washington County circuit judge Karmeier was the GOP candidate in a heated race against then-5th District Appellate Justice Gordon E. Maag, the Democratic candidate. Karmeier won by about 9 percentage points.
A decade later in 2014, he narrowly survived a retention vote despite a multimillion-dollar effort by plaintiffs’ lawyers who campaigned for his ouster.
Karmeier, 79, alluded to a potential early departure from the court earlier this year. During an interview with the Illinois Channel, he recalled a discussion with his wife ahead of the 2014 election cycle.
“And when it got to time to consider retention, my wife and I talked about it and she didn’t think it was a real good idea,” he said. “But I said, ‘Oh, this is the easy election,’ Well it turned out it wasn’t. It was nastier than the first.”
Karmeier had said he wouldn’t run for retention a second time and that his age was a prime consideration. He added that he might move on sooner than that, too — after he relinquished the role of chief justice to Burke, who formally took over late last month.
“After I step down as chief, and during this process, I will be making a decision as to whether I will finish my term, which will be in 2024, or allow someone younger,” he told Illinois Channel’s Terry Martin.
He added a bit later: “I don’t want to be on the court when someone might question whether or not I’m as strong as or alert or able to do the job. I’d rather go out when I think I’m still at the top of my game.”