Former Ald. Edward M. Burke is a convicted felon doing time in prison after a corruption conviction.
But that didn’t stop Illinois Supreme Court Justice Joy V. Cunningham’s campaign committee from taking a $40,000 contribution from one of Burke’s still-active political funds shortly after the Nov. 5 general election that saw Cunningham secure a 10-year term on the bench.
The money from Burke’s Burnham Committee is one of the biggest contributions that Joy for Justice, Inc., has gotten since the campaign fund was launched in April 2023, records show.
It appears to have been made on Nov. 7 or Nov. 8 — about six weeks after Burke reported to a low-security federal prison in downstate Thomson to start serving his two-year sentence.
Burke, who had been the longest-serving member of the Chicago City Council, was convicted in late 2023 of federal racketeering, bribery and extortion charges for “abusing his position while an alderman to solicit and extort private legal work and other benefits from companies and individuals with business before the city,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Burke, who was charged in 2019 and served on the City Council from 1969 until retiring in 2023, is listed as the Burnham Committee’s chairman. His longtime aide and former co-defendant Pete Andrews, who was acquitted at trial, is listed as the fund’s treasurer.
Burke’s wife, former Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne Burke, retired in late 2022, and the state’s high court appointed Cunningham — who was then an Illinois appellate judge — to serve out her term.
Cunningham then ran for a new, full term last year and beat another state appeals judge, Jesse G. Reyes, in the Democratic primary last March. She faced no Republican opposition in winning the November general election.
Shortly before the primary, Reyes questioned whether Cunningham was among Supreme Court members who recused themselves from voting on a recommendation from state regulators that Edward Burke should lose his law license because of his conviction.
The Supreme Court ended up not ruling on the matter because so many of its members abstained, though their names weren’t made public. Burke soon retired on his own from practicing law anyway.
“Convicted felons should not be practicing law in the state of Illinois, period,” Reyes said at the time, WBEZ Chicago reported. “If the Supreme Court cannot make a decision because of conflicts of interest, the court should appoint elected appellate justices to fill in so that a decision can be made without delay.
“It’s a travesty of justice that a convicted felon can keep his law license just because half the court is conflicted,” Reyes said.
Neither Cunningham nor the Supreme Court would say which justices abstained or why.
Anne Burke had served with many of them. And her husband had for many years determined which Cook County judicial candidates would get the backing of the Democratic Party.
Cunningham served on the appellate court from 2006 to 2022. From 1996 to 2000, she was a Cook County judge.
She and her campaign fund made contributions to Friends of Edward M. Burke, another of his campaign committees, in 2004, 2009 and 2011, records show.
The Burnham Committee, which still has nearly $2 million, also gave twice to Cunningham’s previous campaign fund in 2006.
Cunningham’s Joy for Justice fund remains open, with about $70,000 in the bank, and is carrying $160,000 in “debts and obligations,” including a $100,000 loan from Cunningham herself to her fund in 2023, records show.
Cunningham and her campaign leaders didn’t respond to calls and emails seeking comment about taking the campaign money from a convicted felon.
Neither of the Burkes could be reached. Andrews won’t comment.
Though state election and judicial regulations don’t appear to ban accepting such contributions, Illinois’ code of judicial conduct, in broadly addressing ethical expectations, says judges “should aspire at all times to conduct that ensures the greatest possible public confidence in their independence, impartiality, integrity and competence.”
The code also requires that judicial candidates steer clear of the nitty-gritty of political fund-raising, saying they are “prohibited from personally soliciting campaign contributions or personally accepting campaign contributions.”
Before she was elected, Cunningham told WTTW-Channel 11 she “would always recuse myself if I became aware of the donor. However, under current Illinois law, I am precluded from knowing who donated to my campaign. Accordingly, I have never sought to identify donors to my campaign.”
In another contribution, Burke’s Burnham Committee gave $500 in July to one of Ald. Jason Ervin’s campaign funds, records show.
Other members of the Illinois Supreme Court also have had ties to Chicago’s political establishment.
Former Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, a nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley and Cook County Commissioner John Daley, was campaign treasurer for Chief Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis more than a decade before he was convicted in a federal tax fraud case in 2022. Theis abstained from voting on whether to suspend Thompson’s law license in 2022, as did Anne Burke and Justice P. Scott Neville Jr.
Thompson’s law license was suspended by the rest of the court for three years and is slated to be restored next month.
While she was a Lake County judge, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Rochford gave $1,500 to Friends of Edward M. Burke in 2018 — about three weeks after Burke’s offices were raided by the FBI as part of the investigation that ended up sending him to prison.