News Update: Seventh Circuit Judge Named / Illinois Supreme Court Petitions Thrown Out
A Sangamon County prosecutor has been appointed to serve as Resident Circuit Judge in the Seventh Judicial Circuit of Illinois.
Robin L. Schmidt, who currently serves as an assistant state's attorney in Sangamon County, will fill the role. Schmidt is a felony prosecutor for the county with a specific focus on domestic violence and elder abuse and exploitation.
She will fill the opening set up by the July 2021 retirement of Judge John Belz. The appointment becomes active on June 8, 0222 and will end on Dec. 5, 2022, when the winner of the November 2022 general election fills the seat. Schmidt is currently unopposed for the seat.
“Robin’s service as a prosecutor and administrative law judge have prepared her well for this new role serving the community,” said Justice Rita B. Garman of the Illinois Supreme Court. “I welcome her to the bench and am confident she will be an excellent member of the judiciary.”
“I am very honored and humbled by this appointment and thank Justice Garman and the Illinois Supreme Court,” Schmidt said. “I look forward to serving the people of Sangamon County and the Seventh Judicial Circuit in this new role."
Schmidt has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois and a Juris Doctor from the Southern Illinois University School of Law.
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Board Tosses 3 Supreme Court Hopefuls Off Ballot, Candidates Appeal
The state electoral board last week determined that Mark Curran, Susan Hutchinson and Nancy Rotering failed to submit enough signatures.
A trio of candidates seeking their party's nomination for a vacant seat on the state supreme court are appealing the Illinois State Board of Elections' decision to toss them off the June primary election ballot.
Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, a Democrat, former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran, a Republican, and Appellate Judge Susan Hutchinson, a Republican, jointly filed a petition for judicial review of Thursday's unanimous state electoral board vote that found they had filed insufficient signatures for the Illinois Supreme Court's newly redistricted 2nd District.
The minimum number of valid signatures candidates are required to submit in order to appear on a primary ballot is determined by how many people voted in that district in the previous gubernatorial election — 0.4 percent of the number of votes for cast for that party's candidate for governor or 500 signatures, whichever is more.
But in this case, the new district — composed of DeKalb, Kane, Kendall, Lake and McHenry counties — was created in June 2021 when Democratic state lawmakers redistricted the state's high court for the first time in six decades.
Additionally, legislators modified the election code to reduce by a third the number of signatures required to appear on the 2022 primary ballot as a candidate for state supreme court judge.
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