A longtime federal judge in Chicago has agreed to serve as chief of staff to Chief Justice John Roberts — and in doing so has thrown new uncertainty into the three-year-old racketeering case against Ald. Edward M. Burke.
The Supreme Court announced Monday that U.S. District Judge Robert Dow Jr., who has served on the bench in Chicago since December 2007, had been appointed Roberts’ new counselor. The court said Dow would serve as Roberts’ chief of staff in that role.
Dow is expected to assume the full-time position Dec. 5.
“I am grateful to Chief Justice Roberts for the opportunity to serve him, the Supreme Court, and the judicial branch in this new role,” Dow said in a statement released by the court.
Separately, U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle also announced his retirement Tuesday following 38 years on the bench. He called it “an honor and highest privilege to serve the country” in the position.
Norgle’s most recent high-profile case involves Heather Mack, who is charged with plotting her mother’s overseas murder in 2014.
Dow, who also teaches complex litigation as an adjunct professor at Northwestern University Law School, has handled several high-profile cases in Chicago’s federal court. After holding a two-day public hearing, Dow approved the historic 2019 consent decree that continues to govern the Chicago Police Department.
In 2020, Dow sentenced former Chicago Ald. Edward Vrdolyak to 18 months in prison for tax evasion. The judge said then he was “not going to send Mr. Vrdolyak to prison during COVID,” but ultimately insisted the once-powerful politician start serving his sentence in November 2021.
Though Dow denied a later request from Vrdolyak for compassionate release, Vrdolyak wound up under the supervision of a halfway house after five months.
But most notably of late, Dow has presided since 2019 over Burke’s racketeering case. It has lingered for years at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and a mountain of pretrial motions filed in August 2020 that Dow only ruled upon last June.
Then, in July, Dow finally set Burke’s case for trial in November 2023. The schedule means Burke has a chance to seek reelection while facing federal criminal charges for a second time. He was originally charged with attempted extortion in January 2019 and won reelection in February 2019.
However, it’s not clear if that schedule will hold, given Dow’s new position with the Supreme Court. Trial scheduling has been particularly difficult at the Dirksen courthouse as officials there try to clear a backlog created by the pandemic.
That’s particularly true of trials involving multiple defendants, like Burke’s. Also charged in his case are Burke political aide Peter J. Andrews and developer Charles Cui.
For now, the next status hearing in the Burke case is set for Dec. 12 — one week after Dow starts his new job.
