Today I was visiting the McLean County Museum of History and read a display about judges from McLean County. There was a photo of Justice Underwood, who was an attorney from Bloomington who became the Chief Justice on the court. The display said that he became justice after two other justices had disappointed the public.
Of course I was curious and wanted to know what it was that two Illinois judges had done that brought them down. Chief Justice Klingbiel and Justice Solfisberg were caught out in a scandal that was actually investigated by John Paul Stevens of Chicago (before he was a US Supreme Court Justice, of course). Klingbiel and Solfisberg had accepted a "gift" of stock in the CivicCenter Bank and Trust while litigation was pending before the court.
I would make a cautionary statement here about using Wikipedia as a resource. While looking for background on this scandal, of course the Wikipedia article was the first result. In that article the author alleged that Justice Solfisberg suggested that the defendant "do something nice" for Justice Klingbiel. As usual, there was link to an important resource -- John Paul Stevens report of the investigation. I read through that report and did not find any allegation by the investigator that Solfisberg had made such a suggestion.
A word to the wise! Don't trust Wikipedia.
There is no GOOD time for a judge to accept a gift of stock from a bank, company or anyone, but during an appeal is an especially bad time.