Rock v. Thompson

delivered the decision of the court and the following opinion in which MR. JUSTICE WARD and MR. JUSTICE CLARK join:

On January 19, 1981, pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 381 (73 Ill. 2d R. 381), we allowed the motion of Senators Philip J. Rock and James H. Donnewald, hereafter petitioners, for leave to file an original action for mandamus and an injunction. The petition prays for the issuance of a writ of mandamus directed to James R. Thompson, Governor of Illinois, hereafter respondent, “as Governor, to convene the Illinois Senate to elect from its membership a President of the Senate as…