Politics & Government
Will County Judge Anderson To Seek Seat On Illinois Appellate Court
John Anderson will be on the March ballot, seeking to become the first Will County judge to be elected to one of 54 appellate court spots.
JOLIET, IL ? Will County Circuit Court Judge John Anderson has filed his candidate petition to seek a seat on the Illinois Appellate Court in 2024 after garnering the necessary 5,000 signatures needed to file in Springfield, his campaign announced this week.
Anderson, a former Will County Board member, has served as a county circuit court judge since 2010. He will be on the ballot for the March primary election to represent the 3rd District, which includes Will, Kankakee, DuPage, Grundy, LaSalle, Bureau, and Iroquois counties.
There are 54 judges on the state appellate court, nearly half of which are from Cook County. Despite being one of the state?s largest counties, no Will County judge has ever sat on the state appellate court. The court hears a large number of cases because the Illinois State Supreme Court hears only a limited number of cases each year.
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Judges from Kankakee, LaSalle, and Grundy counties are all represented on the appellate court while DuPage County has five judges seated on the court.
?Will County deserves representation on that court too,? Anderson said in a news release.
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Anderson holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Illinois State University, a Master of Science degree from the University of Illinois-Springfield, an MBA from the University of Notre Dame, and a JD from the University of Illinois-Chicago. Additionally, he is believed to be the only active judge in Illinois with a second law degree, focusing on judicial studies, from Duke University Law School, his campaign said.
He was one of only two state trial court judges in the country admitted into that Duke Law School class.
Anderson this year issued a stunning decision, ruling that former Crest Hill police officer Phil Flores must pay $15 million in a default judgment in the deadly shooting of the ex-cop?s former girlfriend, Samantha Harer.
The judgment came after Harer?s family filed a lawsuit against Flores in connection with Harer?s death, which was originally ruled a suicide.
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