Friday's editorial in the Chicago Sun-Times about the case involving Tiawanda Moore recording police on her cell phone, called for the strengthening of eavesdropping laws to protect the rights of Illinoisans. Moore was recently acquitted of the charges violated the Illinois Eavesdropping Act for recording police who were persuading her to drop a sexual harassment complaint against another officer.

The investigators were not accused of doing anything illegal in the end, but that’s not the point. The point is that Moore reasonably could have thought they might have been on the verge of doing so.

Although Moore’s actions fell under the exemption, Cook County prosecutors tried to convict her anyway. One prosecutor even told jurors: “The content of the tape is not the issue. The issue is that the words were taped.”

Read the whole thing.

Read about our case challenging this application of Illinois’ eavesdropping laws.

In case you missed it, the Chicago Tribune profiled a real life illustration of the harms of the Illinois Eavesdropping Act. As you know, the ACLU of Illinois filed suit to challenge the Act, which makes it illegal to record police performing their public duties.  On September 13^th, ACLU Board member and General Counsel Dick O’Brien will argue the case before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Tiawanda Moore was acquitted from charges violating the Illinois Eavesdropping Act, which prohibits citizens from recording police conversations. Moore had originally placed a domestic disturbance call, and claims she was sexually harassed by an officer who responded to the call. When she filed a sexual harassment complaint against said officer, the police investigators tried to talk her out of filing the complaint, whereupon she began to record the conversation on her BlackBerry.

The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago last year challenging the law, saying it was unconstitutional to prevent people from openly recording police officers working in public. A federal judge dismissed the suit, but the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments next month in the ACLU's appeal of the decision.

"There's nothing private about a police officer doing his duties on the public way," said Harvey Grossman, legal director for the ACLU of Illinois. "The way that they police and conduct themselves is a matter of public importance."

Read the entire article.

The Chicago Tribune reports on how some areas of the country, including here in Illinois, are outlawing people from wearing saggy pants, or pants that hang more than 4 inches off the hip. The town of Lynwood, Illinois has an active ordinance against the fashion trend, with fines of up to $750. Lynwood has issued 40 tickets under the ordinance so far. The ACLU of Illinois has criticized such ordinances as racial profiling and free speech violation.

"When you start to criminalize dress codes and suggest that the police are now responsible in some ways for how people are dressed on the streets, I think it's very troubling," said Ed Yohnka, Illinois ACLU spokesman.

Read the whole thing.