Earlier this week at the Illinois Supreme Court Review, we began an intensive review of the Court’s caseload, one area of law at a time. We began with the area of law most closely identified with courts of last resort – constitutional law. Let’s start our review of the Court’s decisions with the civil constitutional law cases between 1992 and 2017.
For most of the period, the Court’s caseload of civil constitutional law cases has stayed fairly steady. In 1992, the Court decided eight civil constitutional law cases. The Court decided six cases in 1993 and 1994, eight in 1995 and three cases in 1996.
The Court decided five civil constitutional law cases in 1997, two in 1998, nine in 1999 and six in 2000. The Court decided eight constitutional law cases in 2001, ten in 2002 and five in 2003.
The Court decided five civil constitutional law cases in 2004, eight in 2005, five in 2006 and nine in 2007. The Court decided only two civil constitutional law cases per year in 2008 and 2009, but decided four cases in 2010.
The Court’s civil constitutional law caseload has edged downward in recent years. In 2011, the Court decided five civil constitutional law cases. The Court decided one case in 2012, two in 2013, one in 2014, two each in 2015 and 2016, and five cases in 2017.
Join us back here tomorrow as we turn our attention to the data for the Court’s criminal docket.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Brian Solis (no changes).