Constitutional Cancer

An interesting Federal Civil Rights lawsuit has been filed in Illinois.

CHICAGO (AP) -- A suburban Chicago newspaper filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Tuesday against the Illinois Supreme Court’s chief justice, claiming it can’t fairly appeal a multimillion defamation verdict awarded to the judge because he heads the court.

Chief Justice Robert Thomas infected the state judiciary with a “constitutional cancer” by pursuing a defamation claim “in the friendly confines of the state legal system he dominates,” according to a lawsuit filed by the Kane County Chronicle’s parent company, Shaw Suburban Media Group, Inc., and former columnist Bill Page.

“The core of it is that the newspaper and the columnist can simply not get a fair shake on appeal and that deprives them of their civil rights,” said Bruce Sanford, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

Thomas, a former kicker with the Chicago Bears, sought damages over a series of columns that Page wrote in 2003. The articles claimed Thomas softened his position in a disciplinary hearing for former Kane County State’s Attorney Meg Gorecki after her supporters backed a judicial candidate he favored.

A jury ordered the Chronicle and Page to pay Thomas $7 million in November. But Circuit Court Judge Donald O’Brien, who is named as a defendant in the federal lawsuit, decided the award was unreasonably high and reduced it by $3 million in March.

The newspaper and columnist want the federal court to find that they can’t get a fair appeal in Illinois while Thomas is chief justice. They also want a declaration that the $4 million defamation judgment was unconstitutional.

The chief justice’s attorney said the lawsuit was a last-ditch attempt by the plaintiffs to get out of an unfavorable ruling in the defamation case.

Anyone who reads this blog knows I distrust much of the judiciary when it comes being impartial or when it needs to discipline itself. The members of the Illinois Supreme to this layman's eyes, had a conflict of interest when it came to ruling on its bosses' case. I can't say anything so far as the libel claims go, but to me this needs review by people who are totally impartial. Whether the Federal Courts have the jurisdiction, I don't know.

Hat tip- Overlawyerd
Linked to- Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson, Webloggin,