Garman Retiring from Supreme Court
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Rita Garman announced Monday she’ll retire from the Court in July. She has served on the state’s highest court since 2001.
Justice Rita Garman, the longest tenured justice on the Illinois Supreme Court and only the second woman ever to be seated on the bench of the state’s highest court, has announced her retirement after more than 20 years of service.
Garman, who lives in Danville, was appointed to the court in 2001 and elected to a full term in 2002. She won retention in 2012 and would have faced voters for retention again in November.
Garman, 78, has been dodging questions about her future, especially since Democrats moved her home out of the 4th district and into the southern Illinois-based 5th District, though most experts agreed she could likely still seek retention in the 4th district.
Instead, Garman will retire from the bench July 7.
In a statement released Monday, Garman said she was honored by the opportunity to serve.
“As I look back on my career, there were many uphill challenges,” she wrote. “When I decided to become a lawyer, there were no women on either the Illinois Supreme Court or the Illinois Appellate Court, and very few women judges throughout our state. In my first-year class at the University of Iowa College of Law, there were only eight women. A professor once told me that he believed I was only there to “catch a husband” and should give up my seat to “a more deserving male candidate, who would have a family to support.”
Though, she said, many of those stereotypes are in the past.
“When I graduated in 1968, I had a difficult time getting hired as a lawyer, as there were simply not many women lawyers practicing. I was turned down for a number of open positions, once being told “I don’t know what I would do with you because no one wants to talk to a woman lawyer,” she wrote. “Today, I am proud that these opinions are a relic of the past. I am also pleased that 40 percent of Illinois lawyers are now women, and the number of women in many law classrooms outnumber men.”
Garman was first appointed an associate judge in 1974, became a circuit judge in 1986, an appellate judge in 1995, and was appointed to the Supreme Court six years later.
Because her retirement is taking place after the June 28 primary, there will not be an election to replace her in 2022. Instead, the Court (traditionally, Garman herself) will appoint Garman’s replacement to serve through the 2024 election.
Former State Representative John Turner, who is currently an Appellate Justice in the 4th District, is perceived as a potential candidate to replace Garman. Turner is the husband of Sen. Sally Turner (R-Beason).
Garman served as Chief Justice from 2013-2016.