Neville named Illinois Supreme Court chief justice; 2nd Black to hold post

Illinois Supreme Court Justice P. Scott Neville, Jr. has been selected by his peers to be the high court’s next chief justice.

Neville, a career Democrat, will begin his three-year term in October. He will be the state’s second Black chief justice after the late Justice Charles E. Freeman, who served from 1997 to 1999. Neville will succeed Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis, who has been on the bench since 2022 and will remain as an associate justice.

A consistent equal justice advocate, Neville launched his legal career in 1974 as the first Black law clerk to an Illinois First District Appellate Court judge, Glenn T. Johnson. He later built a practice in civil rights and appellate law, and in 1992 worked on a pivotal case challenging Chicago’s ward remap with former Appellate Court Judge R.