West Cook News

Cicero attorney Veronica Bonilla-Lopez thinks it’s only practical that residents support the subcircuit maps as they are being proposed.

“I am a Latina lawyer and I will tell you in going to law school (the percentage of) Latino students were slim to none. I went to Loyola Law School. I graduated law school and (Latino) members of the bench were similarly not very significant,” Bonilla-Lopez said during a recent House and Senate Joint Redistricting Committee hearing focused on proposed subcircuit maps for Cook County. “I speak as a proponent of the subcircuits as they are proposed.”

The Senate and House Redistricting Committees recently released a proposed map of new Cook County Judicial Subcircuit boundaries designed to illustrate population shifts that have taken place since before the turn of the millennium. The proposal calls for the number of subcircuits across Cook County to jump from 15 to 20, largely due to the population growth in the Chicagoland area.

“In representing Cicero in particular, we represent (Latino citizens) on an array of items, both in federal and state court and we also prosecute their local ordinances before judges in the circuit court,” Bonilla-Lopez added. “Judges are finders of fact and draw from their experiences and common sense when they make their rulings. So it’s extremely important that they represent their community from where they are being elected.”

In November, voters elected 31 new circuit judges from the 15 districts. Of the 31 new judges, nine were African-American and two are Hispanic.

“And because they are drawing on those experiences to have them rule, again, it's important for them to draw from those experiences and understand those communities they’re coming from and the culture from the Latino community when they’re ruling on those cases,” Bonilla-Lopez said. “Which is why, we are a proponent of the subcircuits as they are proposed. Cicero is highly Latino populated as are the other communities in that subcircuit. ... it says something too to younger Latino lawyers to see Latino judges, to aspire to that, to know that that is an option for them.”