Arab Americans urge retention of Aurelia Pucinski for Illinois Appellate Court justice
Illinois Appellate Court Justice Aurelia Pucinski is seeking retention on the Tuesday, November 3, 2020 General Election ballot. Her Ballot number is 201 and she needs your support. This year’s ballot is going to be very long and difficult because of having so many judges seeking retention along with the new process of including mail-in ballots.
Illinois Appellate Court Justice Aurelia Pucinski is seeking retention on the Tuesday, November 3, 2020 General Election ballot. Her Ballot number is 201 and she needs your support. This year’s ballot is going to be very long and difficult because of having so many judges seeking retention along with the new process of including mail-in ballots.
It’s very important for Arab Americans to make sure that they support Aurelia Pucinski’s retention by voting Yes for her on the Tuesday, November 3, 2020 ballot under the section for judges at the end of the election ballot. Pucinski’s ballot number is 201.
Pucinski has been found qualified by the prestigious Arab American Bar Association which evaluates judges both professionally and on the basis of their support for Arab American Interests. Pucinski has supported the appointment of Arab Americans to judicial vacancies and positions as judges in the past.
The Arab Bar Association wrote: “The Arab American Bar Association of Illinois’s Judicial Evaluations Committee has completed its screening process of your qualifications for retention to the Illinois Appellate Court. We are pleased to advise that the Committee has found you qualified to continue serving on the Appellate Court. For the purposes of the General Election ballot question: ‘Should this Judge Be Retained?’ our publicized answer will be ‘Yes’.”
Pucinski is also rated as “Qualified” by the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association and by the others.
“I consider it the highest honor to serve the residents of Cook County in their appeals. I am committed to fair, open and just results being careful to listen to both sides,” said Pucinski.
Aurelia Pucinski was elected a Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court, 1st District, in 2010. In the Appellate Court she has written extensively on juvenile justice, the proper use of DNA and fingerprint evidence and the need for proper translation during police questioning for non-English speaking suspects.
Besides handling her cases, she is working to provide pro bono services to the civil litigants in the Appellate Court, and to protect the privacy of juveniles in reviewing courts. She is a member of the 1st District Executive Committee.
Pucinski served as a Circuit Court judge in Cook County from 2004 to 2010. As a trial judge she heard more than 10,000 Domestic Violence cases, followed by an assignment to hear adoption, election, property tax and mental health cases.
Former Chicago City Hall and Cook County reporter and Arab American journalist and community activist Ray Hanania praised Justice Pucinski saying Pucinski has always been fair and supportive of all ethnic communities in Illinois including Arab Americans.
“Justice Pucinski has a phenomenal record of fairness and she recognizes the importance of diversity in society. She has been a strong friend to the Arab American community and to all ethnic, racial and religious groups,” Hanania said.
“It’s very important that in voting on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, voters make sure to scroll through the list of names of judges and ensure that they vote Yes to retain Justice Pucinski.”
In her property tax sale cases she was particularly focused on elderly residents having their homes sold for unpaid taxes where there was evidence that the senior needed some assistance in managing his or her financial matters.
Pucinski pioneered getting the Public Guardian involved in such cases. She is particularly interested in the law as it affects juveniles, senior citizens and the disabled. She created a program in Domestic Violence Court to give additional protections and services to senior citizen victims of domestic abuse.
Pucinski was elected the first woman and first attorney Clerk of the Circuit Court in 1988, after winning the Democratic Primary against former Mayor Jane Byrne and the general election against former Alderman Ed Vrdolyak. Pucinski served as Clerk until 2000.
Among her major accomplishments were getting child support checks processed in record time, computerizing courtrooms, establishing youth peer juries throughout Cook County, and managing a 2200-person workforce motivated by ethical values.
Pucinski started practicing law in l976 in a neighborhood law office where she developed a reputation for pro bono work, including representing citizens who sued the Chicago Board of Education to keep a local school open, a case she won in the Appellate Court. A native Chicagoan, Pucinski is a graduate of DePaul College of Law.
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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