Public Accountability Report

The Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission was created in 2007 (705 ILCS 17) to assist and advise the Illinois Supreme Court in acquiring, collecting, preserving, and cataloging documents, artifacts, and information relating to the Illinois judiciary. The Commission seeks to accomplish its work in partnership with historical and cultural institutions; bar associations; universities and colleges; law schools; and federal, state, and local agencies.

In fiscal year 2025, the Commission continued to manage several programs and began several new programs:

1. The Commission led tours for the Illinois Supreme Court’s Learning Center for various school and civic groups.
2. The Commission completed work on a federal grant to digitize early Illinois Supreme Court case files and is completing the user interface for publishing on the Internet.
3. The Commission devotes resources for repairing and preserving Supreme Court case files.
4. The Commission assists the Illinois Supreme Court in its “Riding the Circuit” program to hold arguments in venues other than the Supreme Court building in Springfield.
5. The Commission held its first CLE program on Abraham Lincoln’s legal career in conjunction with the Illinois State Bar Association.
6. The Commission received a large collection of manuscripts from a deceased Supreme Court justice.
7. Commission staff members gave many talks and published articles about Illinois’s legal history.