Former court with jurisdiction over Cook County, Illinois
TheSuperior Court of Cook County was a court inCook County, Illinois, which existed (under different names) from 1845 up until Cook County's courts were merged in 1964 to form the current incarnation of theCircuit Court of Cook County.
The court that was later known as the "Superior Court of Cook County" was initially created in 1845 as the County Court of Cook County,[1][2] as a court of circuit jurisdiction.[2] In this initial incarnation, it was presided over by a judge appointed by theIllinois Legislature.[2] In 1849, the court was renamed the "Cook County Court of Common Pleas",[1][2] and its judgeship became a publicly-elected office.[2] In 1859, it was reformed and was renamed the "Superior Court of Chicago",[2] and its bench was expanded to three judges that were elected for six-year terms. Judicial terms were staggered so that elections to a judgeship could be held once every two years.[1]
In 1870, the court was reformed again and renamed the "Superior Court of Cook County", being incorporated under the newly-ratified 1870Constitution of Illinois as a part of the circuit court system of the state.[1][3][4] The 1870 state constitution also made judges of both the Superior and Circuit courts of Cook County, ex-officio judges of theCook County Criminal Court. The 1870 state constitution also allowed for both the Superior Court of Cook County and the Circuit Court of Cook County to expand their bench with additional judgeships.[4] A law passed on April 1, 1875 accordingly expanded the court's bench, with four additional judgeships being created by virtue of the law.[5] The law provided that for every increment of 50,000 county inhabitants above 400,000, a judgeship should be created until such a time that the court reached a maximum of nine judgeships.[4] The first four new judgeships created by this were filled in elections held in November 1880.[5] The court ultimately reached nine judgeships. In 1893, a state law was adopted allowing the court to expand from nine judges to twelve. Another law was passed in 1901 allowing it to expand from twelve to fifteen judgeships, though this latter law was ultimately struck down as unconstitutional by theIllinois Supreme Court.[4]
In its various incarnations, the court held roughly the same jurisdiction as the original Circuit Court of Cook County.[1][6][7]
The court ceased to exist in 1964 after an amendment to the Constitution of Illinois took effect and created of the modernCircuit Court of Cook County, under which Cook County's court system was unified.[3]
^abcdeKent, Greene J. (1910). "The Municipal Court of Chicago".University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register.58 (6):335–346.doi:10.2307/3313542.JSTOR3313542.
^abcSchmidt, John R. (1989)."The Mayor Who Cleaned Up Chicago" A Political Biography of William E. Dever. DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press.
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