April 18, 2005

As the General Assembly adjourned last week, it marked an important deadline: Friday was the cut-off date for House bills to pass out of the Illinois House and for Senate bills to pass out of the Illinois Senate. This is an opportune moment, then, to review where we stand this session on many critical civil liberties issues.

Religious Discrimination in Employment

We were very pleased to see the defeat of House Bill 1063, a bill that would have exempted all secular non-profits that work "in conjunction with" a religious institution from the definition of employer under the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA). This exemption would open the door to employment discrimination on any grounds -race, sex, disability, national ancestry or sexual orientation -by non-religious nonprofits. House Bill 1063 was never called for a final reading, and caused a considerable uproar when presented on the House floor for the adoption of an amendment. The amendment, which passed with only 68 votes, allowed an opportunity to address the underlying discrimination the bill would cause.

Mandatory HIV Testing

House Bill 255, legislation mandating HIV testing of all prison inmates, was defeated on the floor with only 17 of 118 votes in favor.

Data Collection to Battle Racial Profiling

In the Senate, Barack Obama's replacement, Senator Kwame Raoul, skillfully presented Senate Bill 581, an ACLU initiative requiring the Chicago Police Department to forward data currently collected by officers in the course of sidewalk stop and frisks to the Department of Transportation for analysis. The bill passed the Senate with 52 of 59 voting in favor.

Juvenile Justice Reforms

Two other Senate bills which we have supported, in close cooperation with the Juvenile Justice Initiative, passed the Senate. Senate Bill 283 returns to juvenile court non-violent drug offenders whose offenses occur within 1000 feet of a school or public housing. These youth, all African American or Hispanic, had been automatically tried in adult court. We joined the negotiations on the bill with States Attorney Dick Devine's office. If this legislation becomes law, these youth will have individualized hearings under our presumptive transfer statute.

Senate Bill 458, legislation that raises the age of juvenile court jurisdiction to age 18, like that of 38 other states and the federal government, passed the Senate with 31 votes.

Senate Bill 1328, legislation that corrects the law on juvenile sex offender registration, was defeated on the Senate floor receiving only 10 votes of the 30 votes necessary for passage. We were able to secure positive movement on this issue, advancing it further than we had hoped. We were gratified by the collaboration and cooperation we received from the Attorney General's office and the Cook County State's Attorney. Eventually, legislation correcting our state's law that requires even 8 year-old children to register for life as sex offenders will be addressed.

Efforts to Protect the Disabled Against Discrimination

We were disappointed that House Bill 1000, supported by the ACLU of Illinois and advocates from throughout the disability community, did not move forward. This anti-discrimination bill amends the current definition of public accommodations to conform to the definition used in the ADA that already applies to Illinois public accommodations. House Bill 1000 included a negotiated amendment with the Illinois State Medical Society (ISMS). Although there were no known opponents to House Bill 1000, the House Speaker did not allow a final vote, bottling the carefully crafted ISMS amendment in the House Rules committee.

Basic Civil Rights Protections

Senate Bill 257, creating a state cause of action to vindicate violations of state constitutional rights, failed to be approved in the Senate Judiciary Committee, falling two votes short of passage.

We are extremely grateful to State Senators Don Harmon (Senate Bill 1328, Senate Bill 257) and John Cullerton (Senate Bill 283, Senate Bill 458) for their leadership and dedication on these issues. And, as always, we are appreciative for all the calls, letters and emails from Action Alert members on these important issues.