Cook County judge who shared racist meme faces state probe, reassignment and bias training
A Cook County judge was reassigned, ordered to undergo bias training and will face a state disciplinary investigation for allegedly circulating a racist meme.
The judge, Caroline Glennon-Goodman, was the subject of an order issued Friday by the Circuit Court’s Executive Committee, which convened to handle the matter after Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans fielded the allegation.
In a screenshot obtained by WBEZ, Glennon-Goodman shared a meme that depicts a smiling young Black boy and a Black child’s leg with an electronic monitor on it. The meme is headlined “little tiks [sic] … My First Ankle Monitor.”
Glennon-Goodman wrote on the post, “My husband’s idea of Christmas humor,” according to the screenshot.
In its order, the Executive Committee wrote that Glennon-Goodman’s alleged actions “may violate the Code of Judicial Conduct” and they said they were temporarily reassigning her and referring the matter to the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board “to promote public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
Before the Executive Committee’s order, a prominent Black lawyers’ group condemned Glennon-Goodman’s circulation of the meme, without mentioning her by name.
In a statement Wednesday, the Cook County Bar Association said, “It is our understanding that the photo was meant to be shared with a different audience and that the judge involved has apologized profusely. Nevertheless, such media is inappropriate to share regardless of the audience.”
The statement also said, “Any judge should be unbiased enough to not further circulate such a racist trope … The imagery recalls our nation’s history of inappropriate media images of Black people (such as blackface) and such imagery continues to shape the opinions of Black people, particularly Black men.”
The Judicial Inquiry Board will determine “whether further sanction is warranted” in Glennon-Goodman’s case, the Executive Committee wrote. She also will have to receive “additional training including the topic of implicit bias.”
A spokesman for Evans declined to comment. Glennon-Goodman, who lives in Glenview, could not be reached Friday.
She became a judge only last year, with her appointment to a vacancy announced by the state Supreme Court, effective Feb. 2, 2024. She then won unopposed as a Democratic candidate in the 10th Subcircuit, where she replaced retiring Judge Claire McWilliams. Her term is supposed to last until 2030.
Before becoming a judge, Glennon-Goodman was a longtime employee in the county public defender’s office, starting there in 1997 and working over 20 years on homicide cases. She graduated from the John Marshall Law School and got a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
After Glennon-Goodman was appointed to the bench a year ago, the public defender’s office issued a statement congratulating her and another assistant public defender who became a judge at that time, saying both were “incredibly well respected by their peers and the greater legal community.”
Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter on WBEZ’s Government & Politics Team.