Illinois State Supreme Court justice could be grilled about own election

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Justice Lloyd Karmeier has been on the Illinois Supreme Court for a decade.

But now he finds himself on the other side of the bench — drawn into a federal racketeering lawsuit in which lawyers signal they plan to question him under oath for a deposition after subpoenaing him to turn over documents.

Karmeier isn’t a defendant in the suit, but his 2004 election to the state’s high court is central to the complaint.

Filed in 2012 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, the suit alleges State Farm secretly funded most of Karmeier’s campaign by channeling as much as $4 million in donations primarily through other groups.

Furthermore, the suit claims the Bloomington-based insurance company hoped Karmeier, once elected, would help overturn a more-than-$1 billion judgment against State Farm.

Less than a year after winning his seat on the court, Karmeier, a Republican, indeed voted with the majority of justices to set aside the hefty judgment — which stemmed from a class-action complaint filed on behalf of millions of policy holders who claimed State Farm mandated that inferior parts be used to repair damaged cars.

The great moments of Illinois politics and law.