Tim Hecke | 2/19/2026
CWB Chicago
A retired Cook County judge who was recalled to the bench late last year to help manage the county’s crushing caseload backlog, only to be dumped by the state Supreme Court six weeks later over an opinion column he wrote as a private citizen, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the high court’s justices, alleging his removal was unconstitutional retaliation for protected speech.
James R. Brown, who served on the Cook County Circuit Court for 18 years before retiring in 2020, answered the Supreme Court’s call for experienced judges to temporarily return to the bench and was one of seven retired judges to make the cut. The assignment was supposed to run almost a full year, through December 7, 2026, with Brown tackling the high-volume Traffic Court call.
“I wanted to help. I really wanted to help. I feel like I had a lot to add,” Brown said Thursday. “I feel like I’m still in my prime.”
His return to the bench had personal significance beyond a sense of duty. Brown’s last day as a judge had been March 13, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was shutting down the country and he was preparing to undergo major surgery for prostate cancer, he said. His term ended that December.
“I felt very unfulfilled,” he recalled. He said he saw a one-year recall as a way to “close my career out as a judge the right way.”
Deftly managing a heavy court call with fairness was always his “forte,” Brown said. His record backed that up. He spent many of his 18 years on the bench in “bond court,” where scores of rapid-fire, freshly-filed criminal cases were heard daily. Brown accumulated no disciplinary actions and received endorsements from every bar association in Cook County, including both organizations that would petition to end his recall service.
He stepped back on the bench on December 15, 2025, and no complaints about his conduct or impartiality were filed during his tenure, according to the lawsuit.
But in late December, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, which describes itself as “not a traditional bar association,” and the Cook County Bar Association, the nation’s oldest bar association of Black lawyers and judges, caught wind of a column Brown wrote for former Tribune columnist John Kass’s website before he asked to be considered for reinstatement. Storm clouds quickly formed.
In petitioning the high court for Brown’s removal, the Cook County Bar Association objected to multiple passages from the column, titled “His Judgement Cometh and That Right Soon,” including assertions that “justice awaits those who brazenly and viciously demonized the 77 million Trump supporters” and that “accountability, in one form or another, is coming to the George Soros-funded progressive prosecutors who waged lawfare against President Trump.”
The group also cited other portions of the column, including references to a United States Supreme Court nominee who “could not articulate the definition of ‘woman’ at her confirmation hearing” and an assertion that “American citizens have been senselessly murdered by illegal aliens.”
In the column, Brown argued there was “renewed faith in the American justice system” following what he characterized as an era of political “lawfare” and “progressive prosecutors” who “blatantly violated their oath to uphold the law.”
Brown said he was “literally shocked” when he learned the bar associations were calling for his removal. Neither group contacted him before going public with their demands, he said. After learning of the groups’ letters, he contacted Cook County Chief Judge Charles Beach and offered to sit down with anyone to talk about their concerns, according to Brown.
“Nobody contacted me. And I volunteered,” Brown said. “I was never accused of anything untoward in my career,” he added.
According to Brown, after he informed the Supreme Court on October 3 of his interest in being recalled, he never heard from anybody about the matter until he received an email telling him to show up for work as a judge in three days.
“I was fully expecting to be interviewed,” Brown said, remembering he even contacted old friends to ask if the retiree recall program was still happening. “Nobody ever called me. I was waiting for that call every day.”
On January 26, he was home in Scottsdale for a scheduled week off when he awoke to a 6:30 a.m. text message from Beach, Cook County’s Chief Judge, who had received a one-sentence order from the Supreme Court.
“I knew what it would mean… It was heartbreaking,” Brown recalled.
The court later provided a statement to the media that pointed to Brown’s op-ed and accompanying podcast with Kass as the reason for its decision.
“If you Googled me, that op-ed would have been on the first page. That’s the truth. I don’t understand,” Brown said.
In his lawsuit, Brown argues that the state constitution outlines only two ways judges can be removed: removal by the Illinois Courts Commission or impeachment by the General Assembly. The Supreme Court, while granted the power in the Constitution to appoint retired judges to the bench, does not appear to be given the power to remove them.
Brendan Philbin, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, which is representing Brown, said he intends to file a preliminary injunction seeking to restore Brown to the bench for the duration of the litigation. Brown’s term was set to run through December 7.
The bar associations are not named as defendants. Philbin said they were exercising the same constitutional rights as Brown and bear no legal liability for their speech.
“Who’s liable is the Illinois Supreme Court justices,” Philbin said, who he alleged “retaliated against Judge Brown for the words he spoke as a private citizen.”
Philbin said the proper avenue for the bar groups would have been to submit complaints to the Judicial Inquiry Board, which could have referred the matter to the Courts Commission for a formal proceeding with notice and a hearing.
“If these organizations had true complaints, there’s a process they could follow,” Philbin said. “They could submit to the Judicial Inquiry Board and they would find if he acted inappropriately. But they didn’t. They did what they did and had the Supreme Court justices do their bidding.”
Philbin also argued the case carries consequences well beyond Brown, warning that the Supreme Court’s decision casts a chill over the free speech of hundreds of retired judges across the state — roughly 300 of whom have retired since 2019 — who might otherwise consider returning to help manage court backlogs.
“If they don’t agree with the orthodoxy of the Illinois Supreme Court, they better not apply,” he warned.
The lawsuit seeks Brown’s reinstatement for the remainder of his term, declaratory relief establishing that the justices’ actions violated the U.S. Constitution, and monetary damages for lost wages, lost pension value, and reputational harm.
Read this article on the CWB Chicago website here.
To learn more about this case, click here.