Newspaper Sues Illinois Judges For Rights Violations

North Country Gazette reports:

An Illinois newspaper company has sued 11 Illinois judges, alleging that their handling of a libel case brought by the chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court violated its constitutional rights.

According to the Reporters Committee For Freedom of The Press, the Shaw Suburban Media Group, publisher of The Kane County Chronicle, filed the lawsuit in federal court challenging the way the Illinois state courts handled the libel lawsuit that resulted in an initial award of $7 million for Chief Justice Robert Thomas. Thomas brought that libel suit in 2004 after a columnist suggested “a little political shimmy-shammy” was behind Roberts’ handling of a lawyer discipline case.

The judge who oversaw the trial later reduced the award to $4 million, saying the original amount “shocks this judicial conscience”, the RCFP said.

The newspaper’s lawsuit does not directly address the merits of Thomas’ libel claim. Instead, the newspaper contends it has been denied adequate judicial review of its appeals within the Illinois court system because Thomas is in charge of the judges that make up that system. Because of these procedural problems, the newspaper has asked the federal court to block the enforcement of the $4 million award and to prevent any future proceedings in state court until Thomas leaves the bench, according to the press group.

“I have never seen anything like it before,” Bruce W. Sanford, who is representing the newspaper, said in a statement. “A Chief Justice enlists his colleagues on the bench as his witnesses to help him win a huge trial verdict and then expects the newspaper to be satisfied with its right to appeal within the court system he controls. It’s simply not fair, and the public’s perception of the fundamental fairness of our judicial system is central to the integrity of the courts.”

Illinois has a certain sense of style all its' own.