Updated!! Conflict of interest with IL Supreme Court and gun ban ruling appeal (Caulkins case)?

Updated: Mar 11

3/11/23: this article has led to some serious problems for Governor Pritzker and the judges he was the largest donor to

Only in fictional Gotham City could something so blatant be possible, but it's not, it's the state of Illinois LOL! On Friday, a state level lawsuit challenging the newly enacted "assault weapons" ban was decided. The ban was ruled unconstitutional for violating state law (not on 2A grounds). Almost immediately after the ruling came out, this happened:

As you can see, named as first defendant is Governor Jay Robert Pritzker, who signed the gun ban into law. The Illinois Supreme Court now has to decide on whether to grant or deny the appeal. This is where it gets funny (as in "my goodness how much of a clown show can this turn in to).

In 2022, there were 2 contested (meaning challenged) IL Supreme Court seats. The Governor's personal trust bankrolled the two now-seated victorious Democrats. It was a scandal at the time as well.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/elections/ct-pritzker-money-illinois-supreme-court-20221101-q7t2delhfbfchcxlygb7lh5ioq-story.html

Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker is using his personal trust fund to circumvent contribution limits in two races that will determine whether his party maintains its 4-3 majority on the Illinois Supreme Court.

Pritzker earlier this year signed into law a measure that limits contributions to a judicial candidate from “any single person” to $500,000.

In September, Pritzker’s campaign fund, JB for Governor, contributed $500,000 each to the campaigns of Democrats Elizabeth Rochford and Mary Kay O’Brien, who are running for two open seats on the high court. Last week, the billionaire entrepreneur and Hyatt Hotels heir dipped into his personal trust fund, Jay Robert Pritzker Revocable Trust, to give each candidate’s campaign another $500,000, state campaign finance records show.

The Illinois State Board of Elections historically has treated trusts as separate entities for the purpose of enforcing contribution limits, spokesperson Matt Dietrich said.

“Absent a complaint alleging a violation, we would not assess a penalty,” Dietrich said.

https://www.illinoiscourts.gov/courts/supreme-court/meet-the-justices/

These two judges are also in the middle of another scandal, as the IL Senate President's PAC is under scrutiny for potential campaign finance violations regarding the 2 new ILSC justices. We covered it earlier, as they are both also endorsed and financially supported (hundreds of thousands of dollars) by Everytown For Gun Safety:

https://www.mom-at-arms.com/post/everytown-endorsed-il-supreme-court-justices-caught-up-in-campaign-finance-scandal

From the source in the article:

A political committee, funded in part by Senate President Don Harmon’s campaign that helped expand the Democratic majority on the Illinois Supreme Court, failed to file timely campaign reports as required by state law and didn’t disclose the bulk of its $7.3 million in spending until after the election.

The committee — All for Justice — spent heavily on television ads in support of winning Democratic Justices Elizabeth Rochford and Mary Kay O’Brien. The commercials painted Republican opponents as virulent anti-abortion candidates, politically potent attacks given the U.S. Supreme Court decision that sent the issue of abortion rights to the states only months earlier.

The failure of All for Justice to follow the disclosure guidelines mandated by state election law obscured its pro-Democratic spending in the critical months preceding the November races in which the partisan balance of the Illinois Supreme Court was up for grabs.

And now these two new justices will get to rule on the case and what happens to the defendant, which whom bankrolled both of them to be in the position they're in. In a just world these two would be rescused from this case/ruling on it with JB Pritzker as a defendant, but this is happening in Illinois, and corruption is rooted deep into the political system there. Also, here's the IL Supreme Court Code of Judicial Conduct:

https://ilcourtsaudio.blob.core.windows.net/antilles-resources/resources/57ea945a-7c76-4c12-bc26-d18155e21312/070122.pdf

We already have the financial connection, but here's the personal connection. She's (judge Rochford) public about it all, as well as showing the support for lobbying organizations that lobbied for the IL "Assualt Weapons" ban. Examples:

https://twitter.com/JudgeRochford/status/1586071177650282497?s=20