Cara Smith is a highly qualified, fair-minded lawyer who, as far as I can tell, will make a fine judge.
Smith, who had been Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s chief policy adviser, has been appointed to the bench in the 7th Subcircuit. You name the issue — gun violence, opioids, mental health or the need for criminal justice reform — and Smith will address it in a smart, thoughtful way. She’s got the chops for the job.
Yet, her appointment has angered some African American leaders in the city. Smith, who is white, will complete the term of Marianne Jackson, who is black. Jackson retired in December.
Ald. Jason Ervin, in particular, raised a fuss over the appointment. He had recommended someone else for the job. Ervin has diminished credibility here, and we’ll get to that in a minute.
The person who appointed Smith to the bench, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, also is tainted to some. Her husband is recently indicted Ald. Ed Burke, whose legacy includes being viewed as a racist during the tenure of former Mayor Harold Washington and creating a fiefdom out of overseeing the city’s workers’ compensation fund.
Until earlier this year, Ed Burke also was in charge of slating Democratic judicial candidates. Did he have a say in this pick behind the scenes? We’ll never know.
We do know that Ed Burke is a longtime political ally of Smith’s old boss, Sheriff Tom Dart. That connection isn’t lost on critics of Justice Burke’s selection of Smith. Smith also worked for former Attorney General Lisa Madigan, daughter of powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan, who is tight with Ed Burke.
A selection committee made recommendations to Justice Burke, so she didn’t go solo in making the pick. It’s clear, though, that she ran the show.
The root of the problem is that, as a whole, Cook County’s roster of judges still doesn’t reflect the county’s rich diversity.
Twenty-four percent of county residents are African American, 25.5% are Latino and nearly 8% are Asian, according to 2018 Census estimates.
But not quite 20 percent of the county’s judges are African American, only 7.5% identify as Hispanic and 2.6% as Asian Americans. Injustice Watch, a non-partisan non-profit research center, reported those statistics in August.
The county has made headway in getting African Americans on the bench, but every time a minority judge who leaves is replaced by someone in the majority, you fall further away from equality.
And this 7th Subcircuit job is significant to African Americans because it covers the West Side, which is predominantly African American. Burke comes off as tone deaf not only for this pick but also for appointing a white man to fill a 14th Subcircuit vacancy last winter for an area that is heavily Latino.
The most vocal critic of the pick — Ervin — has some nerve. Justice Burke said in a statement that Ervin asked her to appoint former state Rep. Pamela Reaves-Harris to fill the vacancy. Reaves-Harris left the Legislature in 2016 after one term. That created an opening for Ervin’s wife, Melissa Conyears-Ervin, to be elected to replace Reaves-Harris (Conyears-Ervin left the Legislature to run this year for city treasurer, a race she won).
If Reaves-Harris had been picked to be a judge, the karma would have come full circle.
With all respect to Reaves-Harris, she was a weak candidate. Ervin should have known this. The Chicago Bar Association gave Reaves-Harris a “not recommended” rating.
Burke’s statement said the association’s screening committee found Reaves-Harris to be “‘a dedicated, busy and hardworking public servant,’” but also decided that her “‘limited practice and court experience would make it difficult for her to effectively serve as a Circuit Court Judge.’”
Ervin should have sought a more qualified African American candidate. He backed the wrong person and bears some blame. Certainly, he knew what was at stake: diversity on the bench.
The alderman can still run a candidate against Smith in the 2020 election, assuming Smith runs for a full term, though it’s tough to knock off an incumbent.
I’m confident Smith will give people who appear before her a fair shake. She’s a strong pick. It’s too bad influential people in Chicago left a stain on the appointment.
Marlen Garcia is a member of the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board.
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