On June 16, the 7th circuit released a 40-page opinion in Gerald A. Judge v Governor Pat Quinn, 09-2219. The issue was whether Illinois must hold a special election for President Obama’s old Senate seat earlier than November 2010. Even if Obama had not been elected President, his seat, the Class III seat, would have been up in November 2010 anyway.

The 7th circuit said that the U.S. District Court had been correct to deny injunctive relief, and that the plaintiffs had no right to expect a special election in 2009. But, the decision suggests that the state must hold a special election for that seat on November 2, 2010, to fill that seat for the short amount of time remaining in the current term. Thus, Illinois will probably be required not only to hold the normal election for that seat for the term January 2011-January 2017, but to also hold a simultaneous election to fill that same seat for the period November 2010 through January 2011.

Because of legal technicalities, the issue was not fully resolved, and the U.S. District Court will hold a new hearing in the case on June 23.