Case Name: The People, on the relation of W. T. Burgess, Plaintiffs in Error, v. Robert S. Wilson, Defendant in Error
Court: Illinois Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Illinois
Decision Date: 1854-06
Citations: 15 Ill. 388
Docket Number: 
Parties: The People, on the relation of W. T. Burgess, Plaintiffs in Error, v. Robert S. Wilson, Defendant in Error.
Judges: 
Reporter: Illinois Reports
Volume: 15
Pages: 388–394

Head Matter:
The People, on the relation of W. T. Burgess, Plaintiffs in Error, v. Robert S. Wilson, Defendant in Error.
APPEAL TO COOK COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.
The eleventh section of the fifth article of the constitution of Illinois, which provides that no person shall be eligible to the office of judge of any court in this State, who is not a citizen of the United States, and who shall not have resided in this State five years next preceding his election, and who shall not for two years next preceding his election have resided in the division, circuit, or county in which he shall be elected, applies only to judges of courts established or recognized by the constitution, and which are required to be elected by the voters of divisions, circuits, and counties.
The constitution is not a grant of power, but a limitation of the power of the legislature. And it is competent for the legislature to establish inferior courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction in the cities of this State, and to prescribe the qualifications of the judges of such courts.
This was an information-in the nature of a quo warranto, against Robert S. Wilson, for usurping, intruding into, and unlawfully holding the office of judge of the recorder’s court of the city of Chicago. The affidavit in support of the information, stated that under and by virtue of an act entitled “ An Act to establish the recorder’s court of the city of Chicago,” approved February 13, a. d. 1853, an election was held in said city on the first Tuesday of March, 1853, for a judge of said court, in pursuance of the first section of said act; that Wilson was elected, commissioned, sworn into office, and has entered upon its duties ; that he had not, at the time of his election, resided five years next preceding such his election to said office in this State.
The defendant Wilson was ordered to show cause why leave should not be granted to file the information.
The cause was heard before J. M. Wilson, Judge, of the Cook County Court of Common Pleas, at June term, 1854, of that court
Leave was not granted; and Burgess sued out this writ of error.
Farnsavorth and Burgess, for the relator.
H. Frinic, T. Hoyne, D. MoIlroy, and R. S. Blackavell, for the defendant in error.

Opinion:
Per curiam
The judgment of the court of common pleas must be affirmed for the reasons stated by the judge of that court; whose opinion is adopted as the opinion of this court.
Judgment affirmed.