Ill. court rejects law on mandatory retirement

SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois Supreme Court declared Thursday that a state law requiring judges to retire when they turn 75 is unconstitutional.

The state's retirement law said judges are "automatically retired at the expiration of the term in which the judge attains the age of 75." The court ruled that law fails to set an effective mandatory retirement age because a person elected judge at age 76 would never have to retire because that judge would never "attain" the age of 75 during his or her term.

In addition, the court said the law discriminates against judges who turned 75 on the bench because they would be barred from seeking election, even as a person who was never a judge and was older than 75 could run.

"The judicial article (of the Illinois Constitution) allows for the General Assembly to enact mandatory judicial retirement legislation; however, the plain language of the specific legislation that has been enacted pursuant to the constitution violates equal protection. Moreover, as it is written, it allows certain judges to avoid mandatory retirement," wrote Justice Charles E. Freeman in the court's 4-2 opinion.

A 1992 appeals court decision had interpreted the retirement law to mean that judges could not run in a retention election after turning 75 but could run for judge in an open seat election. The Supreme Court said that interpretation was faulty because it didn't force judges into mandatory retirement as the legislature intended.

"The only judges retired under this construction would be those who choose to be. This entirely undermines the notion of a mandatory retirement based on age," Freeman said.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge William D. Maddux sued to overturn the mandatory retirement law. He'll turn 75 before his term ends in 2010. He told the court that he would like to stand for retention but does not want to run in an open seat election. Maddux first won election to the bench in 1992. He won retention elections in 1998 and 2004.

Justice Lloyd Karmeier dissented from the ruling saying he supports allowing judges to run in an open seat election but not for retention and because so few judges would run for election it's effectively mandatory retirement.

"In a retention election, the candidate's name simply appears on a long list without an opponent. Many sitting judges 75-or-over would likely conclude, as Judge Maddux has, that the effort and expense required to run in a contested election are more than they are willing to undertake," Karmeier said. No person older than 75 has ever been elected judge in Illinois, he added.

The court suggested that if the legislature wants mandatory retirement for judges to write a more specific law or put the retirement age in the state constitution.