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Michael J. Burke

American judge; Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 10, 2025
Entity authorityQ85939720 ↗
Source-derived summary

Michael J. Burke (born October 28, 1958) is an American lawyer who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois from 2020 to 2022. He was previously a judge on the Illinois Second District Appellate Court.

Early life and education

Burke was born in Chicago on October 28, 1958. He received a Bachelor of Science magna cum laude in 1980 from Northern Illinois University and a Juris Doctor with highest distinction from UIC John Marshall Law School in 1984.

Legal career

Burke began his career in the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office in 1983, becoming Chief of the Special Prosecutions Unit in 1991.

Judicial career

He served as an associate judge of the 18th Judicial Circuit from 1992 to 2001 and as a Circuit Judge from 2001 to 2008. While serving on the Circuit Court, he was the Presiding Judge of the Misdemeanor/Traffic Division. In July 2008, he was assigned to the Appellate Court. After the 2012 death of Judge John J. Bowman, Burke was elected in the special election to fill his seat on the Illinois 2nd appellate court district , being elected to permanently serve on the appellate court through the 2020 end of Browman's unexpired term.

On February 10, 2020, the Supreme Court of Illinois appointed Burke to fill the vacancy left by Robert R. Thomas who retired effective on February 29, 2020.

Editorial summary

“Michael J. Burke” enters the record as american judge; Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Michael, Burke and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1958, 2020, 2022, 1980—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1958-10-28. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Michael, Burke and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Michael J. Burke” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Michael, Burke and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 10, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q85939720. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958, 2020, 2022 and 1980.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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  2. Expand the search: follow Michael J. Burke primary sources, Michael J. Burke archive and Michael research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Michael J. Burke” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.