Burke kicks off project on court history

From the latest edition…

By Brian Mackey
Law Bulletin staff writer

Justice Anne M. Burke issued a call Friday for lawyers to help the Illinois Supreme Court create an historical archive on Illinois law.

Speaking at the Chicago and Illinois State bar associations’ annual Supreme Court Dinner, Burke said the ongoing renovation of the high court’s 100-year-old building in Springfield presented an unique opportunity to ”preserve the heritage and record of the court.”

”It is the court’s vision that space will be set aside to house documents and artifacts which will [tell] the story of the progress of Illinois law,” Burke told the lawyers and judges attending the black-tie dinner.

”We hope that you will take the opportunity of this milestone in the life of our court building to help the [Supreme Court Historic Preservation] Commission, in whatever way you can, in its efforts to compile materials for an historical archive,” she said.

Burke began her speech by joking about the stress of adjusting to life on the court, recalling an incident from her first term in Springfield, in September 2006.

Her husband, Chicago Alderman Edward M. Burke, and their youngest son, aged 11, were home alone and placed a call to Springfield.

It wasn’t the best time to take a call, she said, but she assumed that it must be important, given that her family knew that her work would be interrupted.

”What’s wrong?” she recalled asking.

Her husband divulged the crisis: ”The buzzer on the new stove has been going off all night and I don’t know how to turn it off.”

Turning to the history of the court, Burke explored the interconnections that run through the history of Illinois law.

She recently found a 1922 photo of the court that includes then-Chief Justice Floyd Thompson. He resigned from the court in 1928 to run (unsuccessfully) as the Democratic nominee for governor.

He became a partner in the Chicago law firm that would become Jenner & Block, and hired a young lawyer named Jerold S. Solovy, Burke said. (She did not have to remind her audience that Solovy is the firm’s chairman emeritus.)

Burke said she already has one of the first major contributions to the archive in her chambers: an 8-foot by 3-foot mural submitted more than 100 years ago by Albert Krehbiel in the competition to select an artist to decorate the Supreme Court building. Krehbiel’s murals line the walls and ceilings of the high court in Springfield and the former site of the 4th District Appellate Court across the hall.

Burke said there’s an unofficial story about how the court got its own building shortly after the turn of the century, and it involves whiskey, cigars, the governor, the justices and a card game.

Shortly after her appointment to the court in 2006, Burke was assigned to be liaison to the Capitol Development Board, the state agency that oversees new construction as well as renovation of state facilities.

Her work with the board did not require whiskey or a card game, she said, just a lot of discussion, culminating in the legislature’s creation of the Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission in August.

Earlier in the day, the Illinois Judges Association held a luncheon in which it honored several of the state’s jurists.

Supreme Court Justice Rita B. Garman was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for ”her devotion to promoting a strong and independent judiciary and in appreciation of her time and valuable contributions to the Illinois Judges Association,” according to a news release issued by the group.

Other honorees included retired judge Robert S. Hunter, who has written legal books relied on by judges and lawyers throughout Illinois, and Adams County Circuit Judge Mark Drummond, who was recognized for his youth anti-drug presentation ”7 Reasons to Leave the Party.”