* The state bar has come out in favor of a few quite big legislative proposals. From a press release…
The Illinois State Bar Association’s (ISBA) 203-member policy-making Assembly, today adopted a proposal rule governing recusal of judges in cases in which a party has made a campaign contribution to the judge.
The ISBA will recommend the proposed rule to the Illinois Supreme Court as an amendment to the Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct. The proposed rule provides that a judge shall disqualify himself or herself when, after considering all relevant circumstances, there exists a probability of bias. Relevant circumstances include items such as the amount of campaign support, both monetary and non-monetary, and the timing and impact of the support.
The Assembly also voted to support the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act pending in the Illinois state Legislature. The bill provides same-sex and different-sex couples and their children equal access to the status, benefits, protections, rights, and responsibilities of civil marriage.
The Assembly also endorsed Illinois legislation that would allow patients who suffer from a debilitating medical condition to use and possess small amounts of marijuana if certified to do so by their regular physician.
According to the proponents, AFSCME Council 31 has also endorsed the gay marriage proposal.
- Roadiepig - Tuesday, Dec 18, 12 @ 9:53 am:
It is truly amazing how far these issues have progressed in such s short time. IMO four plus years of inflexible tea party nonsense has help nudge the more moderate elements of the Republican Party towards being more accepting of others than they might have been otherwise . That’s good news for those of us who believe in letting people make their own choices in how they live their lives without other people using the government to enforce their prejudices against them.
- Cheryl44 - Tuesday, Dec 18, 12 @ 10:15 am:
Oh just legalize pot and be done with it. That’s an actual way to create jobs, plus we can tax it like tobacco and alcohol.
- Ahoy! - Tuesday, Dec 18, 12 @ 11:54 am:
Good for them, nice to see a State association backing good policy.
- Lay Person - Tuesday, Dec 18, 12 @ 1:58 pm:
Vote Yes?????? Let’s put more conflictual issues on the table and we’ll see the Attorneys really profit!!
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Dec 18, 12 @ 7:02 pm:
Make it legal and save the state a lot of money on marijuana
- Esquire - Tuesday, Dec 18, 12 @ 9:05 pm:
So what?
A few years ago, the Illinois Supreme Court had to mandate continuing legal education classes as a means of helping to prop up the various bar associations, many of which act as CLE providers, because large numbers of lawyers were opting out of joining such groups.
There is a long established tradition in Illinois journalism that the various bar associations speak for all lawyers. The truth is that the bar groups often do not represent more than a tenth of the attorneys in a given community, in terms of activists. Many have opted out or are only nominal members who do not participate in bar surveys and elections.
- smooth - Wednesday, Dec 19, 12 @ 7:13 pm:
does anybody know when this all goes into affect