The Rockford Register Star posted an article about HB 2675 -- the bill that would modernize the way sexual health information is taught in Illinois. Currently, there is no set standard for what is taught in sex ed throughout the state. This bill would ensure that schools are teaching age-appropriate, comprehensive and medically accurate information, so that students can make informed decisions about their health. The ACLU of Illinois has partnered with Planned Parenthood of Illinois and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago to promote advocacy and garner support for the bill.

 Brigid Leahy, director of government relations for Planned Parenthood Illinois, said the proposed legislation could help ensure quality sex education across the state.

“The only thing that would change is if a school is teaching sex ed, we want it taught well,” she said. “We have standards for other courses. This is no different.”

Read the entire thing.

We welcome the passage of House Bill 1 by the Illinois Senate today, creating a pilot project that provides Illinoisans with serious, debilitating illness access to amounts of medical marijuana. The overwhelming, bipartisan vote in the Senate sends this measure on to Governor Pat Quinn for approval.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois supports House Bill 1, and hope that this measure's enactment will provide some comfort and ease to people across the State who are wracked by pain and discomfort due to cancer, AIDS and other serious illnesses.

We urge Governor Quinn to sign the measure into law.

A recent article in Slate talks about the immigration reform bill before Congress, and the need for a provision that would allow counsel for detained immigrants facing trial. The ACLU has published a framework for protecting civil liberties in federal immigration reform legislation, which calls for access to counsel in immigration proceedings.

Without political blowback, Congress has extended the right to appointed counsel to accused violent felons at bail hearings (1984), convicted sex offenders at civil commitment hearings (2006), and suspected al-Qaida supporters in military detention hearings (2012), whether citizens or not. The arguments against doing the same for detained immigrants are weak. Jon Feere, of the Center for Immigration Studies, argues that so-called “illegal aliens” would be “guaranteed greater protections than citizens” because immigration proceedings are civil, not criminal. As law professor and former INS official Jan Ting put it, deportation does not “propose to punish anyone.” Tell that to long-time U.S. residents who are deported to a country they hardly know. What’s more, ordinary civil cases don’t involve being locked up. When they do, for example in juvenile detention and psychiatric commitment hearings, the Supreme Court generally has provided for appointed counsel.

Read the rest.