Appellate Court Judge Vying to Become First Black Woman Elected To Illinois Supreme Court

Appellate Court Justice Cynthia Cobbs (pictured) is currently campaigning to be elected to the Illinois Supreme Court’s 1st District. If elected, she would be the first black woman to hold a seat on the Illinois Supreme Court. Photo Credit: Jerome Simmons
Appellate Court Justice Cynthia Cobbs (pictured) is currently campaigning to be elected to the Illinois Supreme Court’s 1st District. If elected, she would be the first black woman to hold a seat on the Illinois Supreme Court. Photo Credit: Jerome Simmons

Appellate Court Judge Vying to Become First Black Woman Elected To Illinois Supreme Court

With a long list of relevant qualifications, Justice Cynthia Cobbs is one of several candidates currently campaigning for one vacant seat in the Illinois Supreme Court’s 1st District which encompasses all of Cook County. If elected, Cobbs would be the first black woman to hold the position and the second African American ever elected to the state’s high court.

Before obtaining her law degree, Cobbs worked as a clinical social worker and regularly positioned herself as a courtroom advocate for children. In her legal career, she has held positions as a research attorney, a judicial law clerk, a staff attorney, chief legal counsel, a circuit court judge, director of the Illinois Courts, and she currently serves as a Justice on the Illinois Appellate Court.

While a good majority of her professional career has been spent working in the legal system, Cobbs said that the experiences she had while working as a clinical social worker are ones that have stayed with her to this day.

“The skills that you learn as you prepare to be a clinician are skills that stay with you. I have great listening skills and when I say listening skills, it doesn’t just mean that I hear sound. It means that I can hear, I can understand, I can perceive, and I can relate to the individual that is standing before me. I have an understanding of family dynamics so when you are telling me your story, I have the ability to understand that and have compassion. Even though judges have to be objective and I am objective and I have to apply the law properly to a set of facts, it doesn’t mean that I leave my ability to be compassionate somewhere else,” said Cobbs.

If elected, Cobbs will be the first black woman to be elected to the Illinois Supreme Court which she says is not only a significant accomplishment for her as an individual, but it is also an impactful moment for the young women who will come after her.

“Being the first in anything is a major accomplishment, but it’s more important to me that those individuals that come behind me are able to see that it is possible. When I was in college, it didn’t seem possible to me that I could be a lawyer, that wasn’t even a profession that was discussed,” said Cobbs. “For me, it is important to be the first and it is important to be a lawyer and a judge but the most important piece of it is to reach back and pull somebody forward. That’s the importance of being the first.”

Cobbs is one of seven candidates running for the open seat in the Illinois Supreme Court’s 1st District. Other candidates include incumbent Supreme Court Justice P. Scott Neville Jr. who was appointed to replace former Justice Charles Freeman upon his retirement, and Appellate Judges Nathaniel Howse, who is also vying to be the second African American elected to the court, Jesse Reyes, Margaret McBride, and Sheldon Harris, and lawyer Daniel Epstein.

Latest Stories

Latest Podcast

A.L. Smith - Harold Washington Legacy Committee