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Mary Jane Theis
2010 - Present
2032
15
Mary Jane Theis (Democratic Party) is a judge for the 1st District of the Illinois Supreme Court. She assumed office in 2010. Her current term ends on December 6, 2032.
Theis ran for re-election for the 1st District judge of the Illinois Supreme Court. She won in the retention election on November 8, 2022.
Theis first became a member of the court by appointment. The state supreme court appointed her to fill the vacancy created when Chief Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald retired.[1] She then won election to a full term in 2012. To read more about judicial selection in Illinois, click here.
Theis was elected by her peers to succeed Anne M. Burke as chief justice of the court. Her term as chief began on October 26, 2022, and ends October 25, 2025.[2]
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[3] Theis received a confidence score of Strong Democrat.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Before joining the state supreme court, Theis was a judge on the Illinois First District Appellate Court and the Illinois Cook Judicial Circuit Court.
Biography
Theis was born in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from Loyola University in 1971 with a bachelor's degree. She then received her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1974.[1]
Theis was appointed to the Illinois Cook Judicial Circuit Court as an associate judge and served for 10 years. She was appointed to the Illinois First District Appellate Court in 1993. She was on the court for 17 years and served as presiding judge and chairwoman of the Committee on Judicial Education and the Committee on Judicial Conduct of the Illinois Judicial Conference. She was appointed to the state supreme court in 2010.[1]
Theis also served as president of the Appellate Lawyers Association, the Illinois Judges Association, and the Illinois Judges Foundation. She received the Illinois Judges Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Illinois Supreme Court elections, 2022
Illinois Supreme Court 1st District, Mary Jane Theis retention
Mary Jane Theis was retained to the 1st District of the Illinois Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 78.3% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
78.3
|
918,128 | ||
No |
21.7
|
254,423 | |||
Total Votes |
1,172,551 | ||||
|
|
2012
- See also: Illinois judicial elections, 2012
Theis filed to run for her seat on the court. Theis won the Democratic primary with 48% of the vote. She then defeated Republican James G. Riley in the November 6, 2012, general election with 75% of the vote.[5]
2010
Theis was appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court by members of the court.[1]
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Mary Jane Theis did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[6]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[7]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Mary Jane
Theis
Illinois
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Democrat
- Donated over $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- Endorsed by Democratic-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
Theis was a registered Democrat as of 2020. She donated $10,900 to Democratic candidates and organizations. Theis was endorsed by multiple Democratic-affiliated organizations, including the Illinois AFL-CIO, Illinois Federation of Teachers, and Planned Parenthood Illinois Action. At the time of her election, Illinois was a Democratic trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in llinois
- See also: Judicial selection in Illinois
The seven justices of the Illinois Supreme Court are chosen by popular vote in partisan elections and serve 10-year terms, after which they must compete in uncontested, nonpartisan retention elections to remain on the court.[8]
Supreme court justices in Illinois are elected to represent specific districts. The seven justices are divided among five districts (three allocated to Cook County and the others divided evenly among the other four districts) and are voted into office by the residents of their respective regions.[8]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a judge must be:
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is chosen by peer vote to serve a three-year term.[8]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, the Illinois Supreme Court is responsible for appointing an interim justice. If a justice is appointed more than 60 days before the next primary election, the justice must run in a partisan election in the next general or judicial election to remain on the court. The appointed justice's term will end on the first Monday in December after their election. If a justice is appointed less than 60 days before the next primary election, the justice will have to run in a partisan election to remain on the court in the second general election. The appointed justice's term will end on the first Monday in December after their election[8]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Officeholder Illinois Supreme Court 1st District |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Illinois Courts, "Mary Jane Theis," accessed July 2, 2021
- ↑ Chicago Sun Times, "Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis takes helm of Illinois Supreme Court," October 26, 2022
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ Illinois State Board of Elections, "Election Results, 2012, Judicial," accessed July 2, 2021
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection," accessed September 8, 2021
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