Push for elected Lake County judges continues amid lawsuit
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Indiana State Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, has reintroduced legislation that would move Lake County to the same system of elected judges used elsewhere in the state. Randolph’s latest push for the change comes after a federal judge ruled against a lawsuit challenging the county’s system of appointed judges earlier this month.
Most Superior Court judges in Indiana are elected by popular vote, but in Lake, Marion and St. Joseph counties, a judicial nominating commission recommends a list of candidates for a gubernatorial appointment. After being appointed by the governor, judges in the Lake County Superior Court judge serve an initial two-year term before voters decide whether to retain the judge for a renewable six-year term.
This arrangement, known as “merit selection,” has been criticized by Democratic leaders in Lake County as undemocratic and racially discriminatory. More than two thirds of Black Hoosiers live in the three counties with merit selection of judges.
In May 2021, Randolph, along with the city of Hammond, Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott, Jr., and former East Chicago City Court judge Eduardo Fontanez filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the merit selection process violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which makes illegal any voting systems or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race.
“The way we do it now has a disparate impact on Hoosier African Americans,” McDermott said. “It’s not right and it’s not constitutional.”
The following year, Lake County’s Board of Commissioners, which has a Democratic majority, voted 2-1 in favor of a resolution calling for the state legislature to switch the county’s superior court to a popular vote system.
Randolph, who has represented Indiana’s 2nd State Senate District since 2008, has repeatedly tried and failed to pass legislation that would do away with merit selection in Lake County. During each legislative session since 2021, his bills have failed to make it out of committee. He blames the local GOP and its allies in Indianapolis.
“I think that the Republicans in Lake County are fearful that maybe minorities might be elected,” Randolph told the Post-Tribune. “I think they probably feel that they’ll be losing some control over the judiciary which they think they have right now in Lake County. I mean, that’s just my personal thoughts.”
It remains to be seen whether the 2024 legislative session, which began on Monday, will yield different results. The latest version of the bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Elections.
Randolph and his fellow plaintiffs’ lawsuit was met with a major setback on Jan. 4, when U.S. District Judge Philip Simon of the Northern Indiana District Court issued an order, granting a motion for summary judgment filed by defendants — the state of Indiana and Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales.
The lawsuit, which also named the Lake County Judicial Nominating Commission and the Lake County Board of Elections as defendants, additionally alleged that Lake County’s merit selection process violates Article 1, Section 23 and Article 4, Section 23 of the Indiana Constitution, barring the state from granting some citizens a privilege that is denied to others and mandating that “all laws shall be general, and of uniform operation throughout the State,” respectively.
“While I have substantial doubts that the Voting Rights Act isn’t being violated by the differential treatment of Lake County voters, I am bound by controlling authority from the Seventh Circuit that holds otherwise,” Simon wrote.
While he dismissed some of the state’s arguments in defense of merit selection, Simon agreed with the defendants that the precedent set by a 2018 case in neighboring Illinois compelled him to side with them.
In Quinn v. Illinois, the 7th Circuit ruled against voters who challenged an Illinois law allowing the mayor of Chicago to appoint school board members, arguing that it had a disproportionate impact on minority voters. Elsewhere in Illinois, school board members are elected.
Simon called the ruling “unsatisfying,” but wrote that “nonetheless, Quinn is controlling law and I am not free to disregard it where it plainly applies.” He opted to “relinquish jurisdiction over the supplemental state law claims,” declining to address the question of whether merit selection violates the Indiana Constitution.
McDermott told the Post-Tribune that the city plans to appeal the case to the 7th Circuit.
“I feel like we’re on the right side of history with this case,” he said. “And that’s why it’s becoming somewhat of a crusade with me. We’re going to definitely follow this through.”
