Should judges have to live in their own subcircuits?; Bill aims to promote diversity on bench

Is there value to having judges live in the various neighborhoodsof Cook County instead of all bunched up in a few prestigiouslakefront ZIP codes?

The state Senate thinks so. It has unanimously passed a bill thatwould require judges elected from one of the county's 15 subcircuitsto continue living there -- and to win retention from thesubcircuit's voters every six years -- as long as they want to keeptheir seats.

When state legislators created the subcircuits in 1992, it waswith the goal of getting more minorities and Republicans on the CookCounty bench. According to some legislators involved, it also wasintended to ensure "geographic diversity," so not all the …