Lawsuit Alleges that State Farm Stacks Illinois Court Against Individuals

I ended a 40 year relationship with State Farm last year because they refused to quit backing ALEC

http://www.americanprogress.org/press/release/2013/08/14/72230/release-lawsuit-alleges-that-state-farm-stacks-illinois-court-against-individuals/

-
News dropped last week that Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier could face questions under oath about his vote to overturn a $1 billion verdict against State Farm after the company spent millions of dollars on his election. The Center for American Progress today released a new analysis unpacking the lessons learned from this controversy and offering recommendations for how Illinois legislators can address the shortcomings of state campaign finance laws and judicial ethics rules.

A lawsuit in an Illinois federal court alleges that State Farm recruited Justice Karmeier to run for a seat on the court and used third parties to secretly funnel millions of dollars to his campaign. After being elected with such overwhelming financial support from State Farm, the justice chose not to recuse himself from a decision to reverse a $1 billion verdict that had been leveled against the company. State Farm and Justice Karmeier deny the allegations.

“This lawsuit could shed some light on an extraordinary conflict of interest that raises troubling questions about the state of our justice system,” said Billy Corriher, author of the analysis and associate of CAP’s Legal Progress campaign. “If judges are ruling on cases involving companies that secretly spent millions to elect them, then the public will doubt the legitimacy of the judicial process.”