In a 6-0 decision, the court found the residency restriction “does not infringe upon a child sex offender’s fundamental rights” and that there was a “rational basis” for the state to restrict where a person convicted of such a crime can live.
Illinois Supreme Court
The campaign highlighted the lack of Latino representation on the state’s top court — which has long been a concern of many in the Latino legal community and beyond.
Justice Joy Cunningham was appointed by the court to fill the seat ahead of Justice Anne Burke’s 2022 retirement. Cunningham’s opponent in Tuesday’s race, Appellate Judge Jesse Reyes, was striving to be the first Latino on the state’s high court.
The law passed last year came in response to the large number of constitutional challenges that were filed in multiple jurisdictions challenging Pritzker’s COVID-19 mitigation orders, as well as a law ending cash bail in Illinois and the state’s 2021 assault weapons ban.
The matchup between 1st District Appellate Justice Jesse Reyes and state Supreme Court Justice Joy Cunningham has turned up the volume on a conversation about diversity on the state Supreme Court.
According to Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis, the spike in appeals is the “biggest challenge” to the judicial branch’s implementation of the pretrial justice system.
Crystal Martinez, who has been incarcerated for more than two years in Illinois’ largest prison for women for shooting a man, was being resentenced under a rare Illinois law allowing judges to reduce jail time for some domestic violence survivors.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the ban on the sale, possession and manufacture of a long list of firearms, high-capacity magazines and certain accessories in January 2023. State Rep. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, quickly challenged it.
Democratic leaders in the legislature appear ready to revive talks to reform the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, or BIPA, after business groups poured cold water on the majority party’s ideas last spring.
The 2019 law consolidated some 650 retirement funds for municipal public safety workers into two funds — one for firefighters and another for police officers. Chicago is not included.
Case tests language of 2020 legalization law
The court heard two consolidated cases of individuals who were in vehicles that were searched after an officer used the smell of cannabis as probable cause. Lawyers argued the smell of cannabis alone should not be probable cause to search a vehicle given that the substance is no longer illegal in Illinois.
The video of that reenactment – which Jessica Logan’s lawyers maintain she was coerced into performing – was used as a key piece of evidence in her 2021 conviction on first-degree murder charges.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied to take up a petition filed by state Rep. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, that sought to overturn a ruling on a related case he’d brought before the Illinois Supreme Court.
Crucial battles over abortion, gerrymandering, voting rights and other issues will take center stage in next year’s elections for state supreme court seats — 80 of them in 33 states.
The case pertained to a section of the Tort Immunity Act, which states local public entities have a duty to maintain property in a safe condition for “people whom the entity intended and permitted to use the property.”
The case involved a 14-year-old Chicago boy who was struck by a hit-and-run driver in 2020 while riding his bicycle on a public street. He suffered injuries to his right arm, shoulder and thigh that required medical attention.
