Benched: The Corporate Takeover of the Judiciary (Documentary) January 30, 2006

when: Mon 1.30 (8:15pm)
where: Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N State St, 312.846.2600) map
price: $9

Documentarian Wayne Ewing has recently focused on the growing corporate influence in the US judicial system. Benched, Ewing's latest, follows the 2004 campaign for Illinois Supreme Court seats. The US Chamber of Commerce donated over one-million dollars to Republican judicial candidate Lloyd Karmeier ? money it had originally received from Phillip Morris in an earlier fraud lawsuit. Morris was in the process of appealing to the state Supreme Court when the CoC made the donation; you do the math. Incidentally, Karmeier won his Supreme Court seat and last month overturned the fraud suit. Who says you can't buy justice? (PG)