Court Opinion

ID: 9739575
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:17:44.988283+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:12.963879
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH, dissenting: I dissent. I agree with the statement of Chief Justice Clark in People ex rel. Judicial Inquiry Board v. Hartel (1978), 72 Ill. 2d 225, 239, that section 15(c) of article VI of the Constitution “was intended exclusively for the protection of judges under investigation.” As did Chief Justice Clark, “I find it persuasive that, in explaining the intent of the confidentiality provision, the drafters made no mention of an intent to protect witnesses and complainants.” 72 Ill. 2d 225, 239. On the theory that it is essential to the free flow of information concerning complaints against members of the judiciary, the majority has created a privilege obviously not contemplated by the framers of the Constitution. This free flow of information, according to the majority, depends in part on the informant’s expectation of confidentiality “to shield him from possible recrimination by an individual subject to investigation.” 105 Ill. 2d at 533. The majority has failed to cite any authority which supports the proposition that, once the informer is identified, the content of the information is protected from discovery. To the contrary, Professor Wigmore’s treatise on evidence makes it clear that the privilege, when it exists, applies only to the identity of the informer and not to the content of communication received from him. 8 Wigmore, Evidence sec. 2374 (McNaughton rev. ed. 1961). Here, the identity of the informant was not confidential. His former client, in motions filed in litigation pending in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit, stated that a Judicial Inquiry Board petition had been filed against Judge Starnes and that the client believed that the petition was filed by its former trial counsel (petitioner here). If protection from possible recrimination is the purpose of confidentiality, it is accomplished by concealing the identity of the informer. When, as here, the informer broadcasts the fact that he has filed the complaint, neither logic nor the authorities proscribe the discovery of the content of the complaint. The majority opinion serves to subject a member of the judiciary to a malicious, false and frivolous complaint without recourse on his part or fear of retribution on the part of his accuser. This, it seems to me, is too high a price to pay for the benefits allegedly derived from the free flow of information.