In a letter sent on February 21, 2013, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois urged the Chicago Housing Authority not to approve a policy for a new mixed-use development in Chicago that mandates suspicionless drug testing for CHA residents at the facility.  The new development is the Shops and Lofts at 47, to be located at 47th Street and Cottage Grove on the City’s South Side.

The ACLU letter notes that the policy of suspicionless drug testing invades the privacy and bodily autonomy of residents, and that testing through means of urinalysis is humiliating for many people.  The ACLU also persuasively recites evidence that these policies are based on a flawed double-standard – namely that persons in lower income economic brackets are more likely to use illegal drugs.   Finally, the letter points to the fact that the costs of mandatory drug tests – as much as $50 per test, while yielding few positive results – makes the program inefficient and ineffective.

This letter is the latest in a series of objections that the ACLU of Illinois has raised about CHA drug-testing policy.   Earlier this year the ACLU filed an amicus curiae brief in a case where a CHA resident at a mixed-income housing development faced eviction because a member of her household supposedly refused to take a mandatory suspicionless drug test.  A decade ago, the ACLU first testified before the CHA Board opposing the approval of a suspicionless drug testing scheme at a mixed-income development.

You can read the entire ACLU of Illinois letter to the CHA here.

The Daily Illini newspaper out of the University of Illinois published a poignant editorial endorsing the freedom to marry bill. The bill is currently set to be heard by the House Executive Committee on Tuesday, February 26 before moving onto the House floor for a final vote. The bill passed in the Senate on Valentine's Day by 34-21.

"...the value and importance of heterosexual marriage will not be tarnished, it will not be broken, it will not be devalued or scarred. By giving someone else the freedom to make a choice about their long-term relationships in front of the law takes nothing away from heterosexual marriage."

Read the entire editorial.

A new poll from Crain's Chicago Business demonstrates that Illinoisans overwhelmingly support the freedom to marry for same sex couples. Last week, the Illinois Senate passed a measure that would grant same sex couples the freedom to marry. The legislation awaits a vote in the Illinois House:

Most Illinois residents want the Legislature to legalize same-sex marriage in the state, according to the latest results of the Crain's/Ipsos Illinois Poll.

The survey of 600 adults found that 50 percent support the gay-marriage bill that cleared the state Senate last week and now awaits action in the House. That's considerably more than the 29 percent who oppose it, with 20 percent saying they don't know or have mixed feelings on the matter.

Read the whole thing. Get involved in the fight for the freedom to marry.