Scottini vows to restore integrity to ISC

By Jim Stasiowski

1. If you like the judicial handiwork of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and current Illinois Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Rose, then 3^rd Circuit Judge Marie Scottini is your candidate for the state’s high court in November’s election.
2. Scottini, who’s been a circuit court judge since 1993, is challenging incumbent Chief Justice Wayne W. Mendenhall for his seat on the Supreme Court.
3.  She said that, if she wins, she envisions her judicial philosophy resembling that of O’Connor’s and Rose’s.
4.  O’Connor was known as a moderate and frequent “swing vote” on the U.S. Supreme Court, while Rose, a frequent and impassioned dissenter, is viewed as one of the Illinois Supreme Court’s liberal justices.
5. “Their opinions are always well-thought out,” Scottini said of O’Connor and Rose.
6. The cornerstone of their judicial philosophies was being fair and impartial, and following, not making, the law, Scottini said.
7. That’s the approach she’s tried to take during her 15 years on the bench in what she described as the “busiest trial court in the nation.”
8. “I treat lawyers and litigants with dignity and respect,” she said.
9. “Acting with integrity is very important for a judge or justice’s credibility,” Scottini said. “And, if I’m elected, I’m going to bring integrity back to the Illinois Supreme Court.”
10. For Scottini, Mendenhall embodies what’s currently wrong with the court.
11. What it boils down to, she said, is that Mendenhall sides with the special interests, not with the people.
12. He rules against middle-class families and for “big insurance companies and corporate special interests,” she said.
13. Instead, what Illinois citizens want is someone who will put middle-class families first, Scottini said.
14. That’s not to say, however, that she’s going to show favoritism to any party over another.
15. “I’m beholden to no one,” Scottini said. “My goal is that people have access to the courts so their cases are heard on the merits.”
16. When asked how her statement about Mendenhall’s rulings squared with Mendenhall’s votes during the court’s 2007-08 term, Scottini said she didn’t know.
17. In published opinions, Mendenhall voted against insurance companies three out of six times, against an automaker once, and against doctors one out of two times.
18. And, Mendenhall signed on to three plaintiff-favorable medical-malpractice orders, one of which shielded as many as 30 medical-malpractice lawsuits from dismissal.
19. “I haven’t scrutinized those cases,” Scottini said.
20. And, she said, “I haven’t really studied the decisions he’s authored himself.”
21. Since May 2001, Mendenhall has authored 66 majority opinions.
22. Scottini said she didn’t know whether any of the majority opinions authored by Mendenhall had been overruled, reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court or “corrected” by the Illinois Legislature.
23. Scottini, who ran unsuccessfully for the Illinois Court of Appeals in 2006, said she was running now against Mendenhall because she was asked by many people to do so.
24. “The people of Illinois need a change,” she said. “And I can bring that.”
25. Among the things she’d change is the rate at which the Supreme Court overrules its own precedent.
26. According to Illinois Lawyers Weekly’s calculations, 2010 is on track to have the fewest cases overruling Supreme Court precedent since 2001. To date this year, the Supreme Court has overruled precedent in only four cases. In 2001, it was three cases.
27. “People need to know what the law is,” Scottini said. “I believe in stare decisis. Something must be drastically wrong for the court to overrule.”
28. Although the candidate took issue with a couple of cases that occurred during Mendenhall’s time on the court, she said “I can’t say that I would overrule them. I would need to study them more.”