Last week, we began our review of the individual Justices’ work on the Illinois Supreme Court.  We started with a look at how authorship of majority opinions was distributed year by year between 2000 and 2004.  Today, we turn to majority opinions in civil cases between 2005 and 2009.

In Table 364 below, we report the number of majority opinions written in civil cases decided non-unanimously.  For 2005, the non-unanimous majorities were evenly distributed, with Chief Justice McMorrow and Justices Garman, Freeman and Thomas each writing two opinions, and Justice Karmeier writing one.  In 2006, Justice Fitzgerald wrote five majorities.  Justice Karmeier wrote four.  Justice Freeman wrote three, and Justices Garman and Kilbride wrote two apiece.  Chief Justice Thomas and Justices McMorrow and Burke wrote one majority each.  In 2007, Chief Justice Thomas wrote three majority opinions in non-unanimous civil cases.  Justice Garman wrote two majorities, and Justices Fizgerald, Freeman and Kilbride wrote one apiece.  For 2008, Justice Garman led the Court in non-unanimous civil majorities.  Chief Justice Thomas and Justices Freeman, Karmeier and Fitzgerald wrote two apiece. In 2009, Justice Freeman wrote four non-unanimous civil majorities.  Justice Burke wrote two and Justices Garman and Fitzgerald wrote one each.

We report the same data as a percentage of the Court’s total non-unanimous civil cases in Table 365 below.  For 2005, Chief Justice McMorrow and Justices Garman, Freeman and Thomas each wrote 22.22% of the Court’s non-unanimous civil majority opinions.  The next year, Justice Fitzgerald wrote 26.32%.  Justice Karmeier wrote 21.05%, Justice Freeman wrote 15.79%, and Justices Kilbride and Garman wrote 10.53% apiece.

In 2007, Chief Justice Thomas authored 37.5% of the Court’s non-unanimous civil majorities.  Justice Garman wrote one-quarter, and Justices Freeman, Kilbride and Fitzgerald wrote 12.5% apiece.  The next year, Justice Garman wrote 33.33% of the Court’s non-unanimous civil majorities.  Chief Justice Thomas and Justices Freeman, Karmeier and Fitzgerald each wrote 16.67%.  Finally, in 2009, Justice Freeman wrote half of the Court’s non-unanimous civil cases.  Justice Burke wrote a quarter, and Chief Justice Fitzgerald and Justice Garman wrote 12.5% apiece.

The distribution of majority decisions in unanimous civil cases is reported in Table 366 below.  Justice Garman wrote eight majorities in 2005.  Justice Thomas was next with seven.  Justice Kilbride wrote six.  Chief Justice McMorrow and Justice Fitzgerald wrote five apiece.  In 2006, Justice Karmeier led the Court with six majorities in unanimous civil cases.  Chief Justice McMorrow and Justices Garman and Fitzgerald wrote five apiece, Chief Justice Thomas wrote four and Justices Freeman and Kilbride wrote two each.  In 2007, Justice Fitzgerald led the Court with eight unanimous civil majorities. Justice Burke was next with six, Justice Freeman wrote five majorities, Justices Kilbride and Karmeier wrote four each.  Justice Garman wrote two majorities and Chief Justice Thomas wrote one.  For 2008, Justice Kilbride led the Court with seven majority opinions in civil cases.  Justices Burke and Freeman each wrote six.  Chief Justice Thomas and Justice Fitzgerald and Garman wrote three apiece.  Justice Karmeier wrote two majority opinions.  In 2009, Justices Karmeier and Garman led with seven majorities apiece.  Chief Justice Fitzgerald and Kilbride wrote five each.  Justice Burke wrote four, Justice Thomas wrote three and Justice Freeman wrote two.

In 2005, Justice Garman wrote 21.62% of the Court’s unanimous civil decisions.  Justice Thomas wrote 18.42%.  Justice Kilbride wrote 16.22%.  Chief Justice McMorrow and Justice Fitzgerald wrote 13.51% apiece.  In 2006, Justice Karmeier wrote 20.69% of the Court’s unanimous civil majorities.  Chief Justice McMorrow and Justices Fitzgerald and Garman wrote 17.24% apiece.  Chief Justice Thomas wrote 13.79%.  For 2007, Justice Fitzgerald wrote 26.67% of the unanimous civil majorities.  Justice Burke wrote 20% and Justice Freeman wrote 16.67%.  The following year, Justice Kilbride led the Court with 23.33% of the unanimous civil majorities. Justices Burke and Freeman wrote 20% apiece.  Finally, for 2009 Justices Karmeier and Garman each wrote 21.21% of the Court’s unanimous civil majorities.  Chief Justice Fitzgerald and Justice Kilbride each wrote 15.15%, and Justice Burke wrote 12.12%.

Join us back here tomorrow as we turn our attention to the Court’s majority opinions in criminal cases between 2005 and 2009.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Greg Dunlap (no changes).