Chicago Plan

Last month at Columbus, Ohio, the 150-member House of Delegates of the American Bar Association resolved to take State judiciaries out of politics by doing away with the familiar elective processes (TIME, Jan. 18). Last week the Chicago Bar Association's Board of Managers on Judicial Selection brought to Bar headquarters atop the Burnham Building the Chicago Plan to free the courts of political domination. To put the proposals into operation would require an amendment to the State Constitution. Affected would be Cook County's three inferior courts, which would be changed thus: Each sitting judge would complete his elective term. At the next election, put on the ballot without political affiliation or opposition, he would be voted on. A majority of votes against any one judge would eliminate him, otherwise he would retain office for ten years.

Vacancies would be filled by gubernatorial appointment from a list of eligibles selected by a non-partisan commission. Said President Charles M'. Thomson of the Chicago Bar Association as he signed the report: "There can be no reasonable difference of opinion over the proposition that the existing method of selecting judges ...is about as bad as it could be."

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