Illinois Chief Justice Fitzgerald

During the impeachment proceedings I visited the website of the Illinois Supreme Court to read about the Chief Justice. On the day I was on that website I could not find any webpage with the names of the justices on the Court, and I thought that quite strange.

When I went to that website this morning, the first link was to the members of the Court. Did I miss it a couple of days ago, or was that webpage taken down during the impeachment tribunal?

I wanted to learn more about Chief Justice Fitzgerald, because it seemed to me that he was moving slowly during the proceedings and seemed to be "managed" by those close at hand. Did anyone else find this strange?

While I can understand the need to move through an impeachment process carefully and take each step at the right time, there were awkward moments and delays. Yes, words and phrases are carefully scripted, but they seemed devoid of the human element most of the time.

I agree with a Court's being neutral while the body of the Senate was fulfilling its role and duties.

I was unable to determine from the Supreme Court's website what the age of the Chief Justice is. Reference to his attendance at Loyola University (the website doesn't say that he was graduated from Loyola) is omitted, as is his graduation date from the John Marshall Law School.

In 1976 he was first elected to the bench, but his age at that time is not determinable from the contents of the website. Now, 33 years later, how old is he?

And then I found a May 19, 2008, Illinois Supreme Court press release, announcing his election as Chief Justice, and placing his age last year at 66. Frankly, this surprises me. I would have guessed his age to be in the late 70s, from his slow and deliberate speech during the tribunal.