Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis announces retirement
[January 13, 2026]
By Ben Szalinski
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis announced
she will retire from the state’s high court later this month.
Theis, a Democrat from Chicago who represents the Cook County district
on the court, said in a statement Monday she will vacate the bench Jan.
29 after first being appointed to the court in 2010.
“I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to serve,” Theis said
in a statement. “It has been my foremost goal to further the Court’s
mission of providing access to equal justice, ensuring judicial
integrity and upholding the rule of law.”
Theis was elected to a full term in 2012 and appointed chief justice in
2022. Her term as head of the court ended last October when Chief
Justice P. Scott Neville was appointed the new leader of the court.
Theis played a role in several impactful decisions, including the
Democratic-majority court’s ruling allowing Illinois to abolish cash
bail in 2023.
Theis authored the majority opinion in favor of the controversial and
pioneering law, which many opponents said violates the constitutional
requirement that people charged with a crime receive bail. Theis wrote
the state constitution does not require bail to be monetary and is not
the only mechanism that can be used to ensure a person returns to court
for trial. She noted the General Assembly amended the state’s bail laws
many times over the years.
“If the legislature could reconsider bail over the course of so many
years, it could do so again in 2021 without offending separation of
powers principles,” Theis wrote of the SAFE-T Act, which lawmakers
passed in early 2021.
She argued the law creates a “presumption” in favor of pretrial release,
meaning “the state bears the burden of establishing a defendant’s
eligibility for pretrial detention.”
[to top of second column]
|
Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis listens to remarks from the
bench at the Illinois Supreme Court in Springfield. (Capitol News
Illinois file photo)
During Theis’ tenure as chief justice, the Supreme Court guided the
implementation of the new cashless bail pretrial procedure in Illinois.
The Supreme Court oversees the administration of the entire Illinois
court system.
New justice to join the court
First District Appellate Court Justice Sanjay Tailor was appointed by
the court to fill Theis’ vacancy on the seven-justice court beginning at
the end of the month. Tailor will serve until at least December 2028,
when Cook County voters will decide who will be given a full 10-year
term on the bench.
Tailor has been a Cook County judge since 2003 and became an appellate
court judge in 2022, according to a news release from the Supreme Court.
He previously worked as an assistant state’s attorney in Cook County and
as a private attorney. Tailor will be the first Asian American on the
Illinois Supreme Court.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government
coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily
by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. |
