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Thomas Hoffman
Thomas Hoffman was a judge of the Illinois 1st District Appellate Court. He assumed office in 1993. He left office on July 4, 2025.
Hoffman ran for re-election for judge of the Illinois 1st District Appellate Court. He won in the retention election on November 5, 2024.
Hoffman passed away on July 4, 2025.[1]
Biography
Thomas Hoffman received his B.A. from Loyola University in 1969 and his J.D. from the John Marshall Law School in 1971.[2] He began his career in 1971 as an assistant corporation counsel for the City of Chicago. In 1976, Hoffman became a private practice lawyer. He was then appointed to the Cook County Circuit Court in 1984 as an associate judge. He was elected a circuit judge of this court in 1988. Hoffman served in this position until he was assigned to the appellate court in 1993.[2]
Elections
2024
See also: Illinois intermediate appellate court elections, 2024
Illinois 1st District Appellate Court, Thomas Hoffman's seat
Thomas Hoffman was retained to the Illinois 1st District Appellate Court on November 5, 2024 with 76.4% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
76.4
|
1,200,800 | ||
No |
23.6
|
371,702 | |||
Total Votes |
1,572,502 | ||||
|
|
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Hoffman in this election.
2014
Hoffman was retained to the First District Appellate Court with 78.3 percent of the vote on November 4, 2014. [3]
Evaluations
The Illinois State Bar Association rated Hoffman as Recommended for retention in 2014.[4]
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Thomas Hoffman did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Noteworthy cases
Case concerning Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel (2011)
Hoffman wrote the First District Appellate Court's opinion stating that former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was not eligible to appear on the ballot in his candidacy for Mayor of Chicago. The First District Appellate Court found that candidates must have resided in the city for a year prior to Election Day. This meant that since Emanuel was serving on the President of the United States' staff out of state, he was not eligible to serve as mayor in Chicago. Emanuel contended that his primary residence was still in the city. On appeal, the Illinois Supreme Court agreed with Emanuel and reversed the appellate court's ruling.[5][6]
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Illinois Courts, “Illinois Judicial Branch loses 2 legendary appellate justices" accessed August 21, 2025
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedbio - ↑ Illinois State Board of Elections, "List of judges seeking retention in the November 4, 2014 general election," accessed May 8, 2014
- ↑ Illinois State Bar Association, "Judicial Evaluations," October 2014
- ↑ Chicago Sun-Times, "'We will prevail,' Rahm says after booted off ballot," January 25, 2011
- ↑ U.S. News and World Report, "Emanuel the Frontrunner in Chicago Mayor's Race," February 1, 2011
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