Just days before a sweeping criminal justice reform bill known as the SAFE-T Act was set to go into effect in Illinois, a Kankakee judge ruled that the bill’s controversial elimination of cash bail was unconstitutional. Jen DeSalvo has more.
UPDATE: Just hours before cash bail was set to be eliminated across parts of Illinois, the state's Supreme Court stopped it from taking effect. Read more here.
In at least 65 Illinois counties, cash bail will remain in place on Jan. 1 unlike the rest of the state following a judge's ruling that the pre-trial release provisions in the SAFE-T act are unconstitutional.
The dozens of counties were part of a class-action lawsuit brought by several prosecutors and sheriffs around the state in opposition of the legislation pushed by Democrats who control the Illinois General Assembly.
On Thursday, Circuit Judge Thomas Cunnington in Kankakee County ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, specifically ruling bail reform and pre-trial release provisions in the Pre-Trial Fairness Act are unconstitutional. Specifically, Cunnington's ruling held that the SAFE-T Act violated the Separation of Powers Clause, the Victim Rights Act, and unconstitutionally amended Article I, Section 9 of Illinois' constitution, which codified cash bail in the state.
The elimination of cash bail was set to take effect Jan. 1, but the full ramifications of the ruling remain uncertain.
According to a press release sent by Kankakee County State's Attorney Jim Rowe, one of the lead plaintiffs in the class-action suit, the bail portion of the law will not go into effect on Jan. 1 in the counties that signed onto the complaint filed against the administration of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, however, said "it is important to note that it is not binding in any other case, including those involving criminal defendants in any of the state’s 102 counties."
"Today’s ruling affirms that we are still a government of the people, and that the Constitutional protections afforded to the citizens of Illinois – most importantly the right to exercise our voice with our vote – are inalienable," Rowe said in a statement.
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Raoul said the state will appeal the ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court.
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"To definitively resolve this challenge to the pretrial release portions of the SAFE-T Act, Governor Pritzker, the legislative leaders named in the consolidated cases and I intend to appeal the circuit court’s decision directly to the Illinois Supreme Court, where we will ask the court to reverse the circuit court’s decision," he said in a statement.
Raoul also emphasized that other portions of the bill, including new requirements for body cameras and other police reforms, were allowed to stand under the terms of the court order.
While several Chicago-area counties were included in the suit, many were not. Among the most notable was Cook County, the largest county in Illinois.
Here's the full list of 65 counties included in the suit:
- Adams County
- Bond County
- Boone County
- Brown County
- Carroll County
- Cass County
- Christian County
- Clay County
- Clinton County
- Coles County
- Cumberland County
- DeKalb County
- DeWitt County
- Douglas County
- Effingham County
- Fayette County
- Ford County
- Franklin County
- Fulton County
- Greene County
- Grundy County
- Hancock County
- Henderson County
- Jackson County
- Jasper County
- Jefferson County
- Jersey County
- Jo Daviess County
- Johnson County
- Kankakee County
- Kendall County
- Knox County
- LaSalle County
- Lee County
- Livingston County
- Logan County
- Macon County
- Mason County
- Madison County
- Massac County
- McDonough County
- McHenry County
- McLean County
- Mercer County
- Monroe County
- Montgomery County
- Moultrie County
- Ogle County
- Perry County
- Pope County
- Pulaski County
- Randolph County
- Saline County
- Sangamon County
- Scott County
- Shelby County
- Stephenson County
- Tazewell County
- Union County
- Vermilion County
- Washington County
- White County
- Will County
- Winnebago County
- Woodford County
