This week and next, our District-by-District analysis of the originating counties for the Supreme Court’s civil and criminal dockets continues with a look at the Fourth District.

The Fourth District contains thirty counties: Adams, Brown, Calhoun, Cass, Champaign, Clark, Coles, Cumberland, De Witt, Douglas, Edgar, Ford, Greene, Jersey, Livingston, Logan, Macon, Macoupin, Mason, McLean, Menard, Morgan, Moultrie, Piatt, Pike, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott, Vermilion and Woodford.  Sangamon county, home of the state capital, is by far the biggest of these counties, accounting for one third of the District’s total population.  Champaign and McLean counties are the only two remaining counties who account for more than ten percent of the District, and eighteen different counties in the Fourth account for two percent or less of the total population of the District.

In 1990, Sangamon county produced six civil cases for the Supreme Court’s docket, Champaign one and Douglas one.  In 1991, Sangamon and Greene counties produced one case each.  1992 was a busy year: four cases from Champaign, two each from Ford, McLean and Vermilion, and one from Macon, Menard, Pike and Sangamon counties.  In 1993, the Court decided two civil cases each from Sangamon and Champaign counties.  In 1994, the Court decided four cases from McLean county, two from Champaign and one each from McLean, Morgan and Sangamon.

In 1995, the Court decided two civil cases from Sangamon county, two from McLean, and one each from Champaign, De Witt and Menard counties.  In 1996, the Court decided one case each from McLean, Sangamon and Vermilion.  The following year, the Court decided two civil cases from Macon county and 0one from Champaign, Coles, Logan and Sangamon.  In 1998, the Court decided two cases from Morgan county, and one from Douglas, Macon, McLean and Sangamon.  In 1999, the Court decided one civil case apiece from Adams, Clark, McLean and Sangamon counties.

The Court only decided two civil cases from the Fourth District in 2000 – one from Adams county and one from Sangamon.  In 2001, the Court decided two from McLean county and one each from Champaign, Macon and Sangamon.  In 2002, the Court decided three cases from Sangamon and one from De Witt, Edgar and McLean counties.  In 2003, the Court decided three cases from Sangamon, two from Macon and McLean, and one each from Adams, Coles and Vermilion counties.  In 2004, the Court decided three civil cases which originated in Champaign county and one each from Sangamon and McLean.

Join us back here tomorrow as we review the data for the years 2005 to 2019.

Image courtesy of Flickr by COD Newsroom (no changes).