Illinois Supreme Court Justice Wants To Bring The Courts To The People
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Joy Cunningham is running for her seat on the Illinois Supreme Court that she was appointed to in 2022. Photo provided by Justice Joy Cunningham.
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Joy V. Cunningham has been on the Illinois Supreme Court since 2022, when she was appointed to fill the seat of a judge who retired. Before that, she was an Appellate Court Judge.
Cunningham also had a career as a registered nurse. She worked as a nurse in the Intensive Care Unit before becoming a lawyer. She said being a nurse taught her a lot of basic human skills that are very useful, including patience, how to listen, how to talk to people at their lowest and how to problem solve. She was a working nurse while she was in law school.
“Over time, in volunteering, I just felt that lawyers really can do a lot of good,” she said, adding that lawyers have made a lot of gains when it comes to civil rights.
Under the Illinois Constitution, when a judge leaves the Illinois Supreme Court, by retirement or any other means than the end of their term, the Court has to appoint someone to fill the seat until the next election. Cunningham was a judge on the Appellate Court for 16 years.
Cunningham said the judicial branch keeps the other two branches of government, legislative and executive, in their lane. If the legislature passes a law that is unconstitutional, it is the Supreme Court that strikes down that law. If the Governor issues an Executive Order that is unconstitutional, it is the Supreme Court that determines whether it is Constitutional.
Cunningham has a personal mission of bringing the court to the people. She does a lot of public speaking to educate people on the court system. She thinks people should know their court and understand it. She said that state Supreme Courts have become much more important than they ever were because the federal courts are giving up a lot of the responsibility and the protection people used to rely on the federal courts for. One example is Roe vs. Wade.
“We had 50 years of Roe vs. Wade, where women had reproductive rights and suddenly that’s gone. All of those issues are now in the hands of your State’s Supreme Court like the Illinois Supreme Court,” she said.
Cunningham is running to retain her seat on the Illinois Supreme Court. The elections is Tuesday, March 19th. She has been evaluated as Highly Qualified by the Chicago Bar Association, the Cook County Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Association, among others.
“Consistency is important, experience is important and diversity is important, I bring all of those to the table,” she said.
Cunningham was the first Black woman from Cook County to serve on the Illinois Supreme Court. It is a responsibility that she takes very seriously. Over the course of her career, she has been the first and the only in many situations. Her focus is always to make sure that she is not the last. She acknowledges there is strict scrutiny and she does everything she can to ensure others can come behind her. She came up in a time in the law when there were not many women and not many Black women.
For more information about Justice Cunningham, visit joyforjustice.com.
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