Newspaper files civil rights suit against Illinois chief justice

The AP reports:

A suburban newspaper sued the Illinois Supreme Court's chief justice Tuesday, claiming it can't fairly appeal a multimillion-dollar defamation verdict awarded to the judge because he heads the court.

Chief Justice Robert Thomas infected the state judiciary with a ''constitutional cancer'' by pursuing a defamation claim ''in the friendly confines of the state legal system he dominates,'' according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by the Kane County Chronicle's parent company, Shaw Suburban Media Group Inc., and former columnist Bill Page.

''The core of it is that the newspaper and the columnist can simply not get a fair shake on appeal, and that deprives them of their civil rights,'' said Bruce Sanford, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

Thomas, a former kicker with the Chicago Bears, sought damages over a series of columns that Page wrote in 2003. The articles claimed Thomas softened his position in a disciplinary hearing for a former Kane County state's attorney whose supporters backed a judicial candidate he favored.

A jury in November ordered the paper and Page to pay Thomas $7 million. But a circuit court judge who is also named as a defendant in the federal lawsuit reduced the award in March to $4 million.

The chief justice's attorney said the lawsuit was a last-ditch attempt to get out of an unfavorable ruling.

''I think it's not only frivolous, it's an abuse of process,'' said attorney Joseph Power. ''A Kane County jury awarded $7 million to Justice Thomas and the trial judge who presided reduced it by $3 million, and now they have the nerve to turn around and sue them. It's absolutely absurd.''

Illinois isn't a state that believes in checks and balances.