County Judges in Illinois do not have Absolute Immunity

There is this common misconception and flat-out lie that is told all around our country that your local county/state Judges are protected by absolute immunity for judicial acts. This is only partially true, because not every act a judge does is a judicial act. A local county/state judge cannot violate a “ministerial act:” “judicial immunity applies “to judicial acts, but not to ministerial or administrative acts.” Lowe, 772 F.2d at 312. The Supreme Court has acknowledged the imprecision nherent in “attempting to draw the line between truly judicial acts, for which immunity is appropriate, and acts that simply happen to have been done by judges.” Forrester v. White, 484 U.S. 219, 227, 108 S.Ct. 538, 98 L.Ed.2d 555 (1988).

Each State has different “commanding law” in regard to “ministerial acts,” but in Illinois, our law is clear: “ministerial acts are those which a person performs on a given state of facts in a prescribed manner, in obedience to the mandate of legal authority, and without reference to the official’s discretion as to the propriety of the act.’ ” (Emphases omitted.) Van Meter, 207 Ill. 2d at 371-72 (quoting Snyder v. Curran Township, 167 Ill. 2d 466, 474 (1995)).

In short, a county/state judge cannot violate any appellate court rulings in his commanding district, any Supreme Court rulings of his State, any court rulings from his or her Federal Appellate District, any court rulings from the Supreme Court of the United States, or any statutes of his or her state. If any judge is guilty of such violations, they can be sued individually under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

While appellate and Federal Judges enjoy absolute Immunity in its true meaning, your local/state judge can be sued very easily, due to the strict nature of needing to employ the the law correctly. This is why we need to hold judges accountable in the community. In many cases, in family court and many other civil proceedings, the judges rule with their feelings in disregard of the law with absolute surity that you do not know the proper recourse of action. As law becomes ever more public and less secret, we can recieve the true benefits that we are meant to reap from our legislatures: rights and benefits that are “gate-keeped”, many times by judges.

In the United States, truly, noone is above the law. I hope this information helps you in your journey for justice.

*stay tuned for critical information on how you can be an active citizen.