News & Commentary

Roger Pascal, the long-time and beloved General Counsel of the ACLU of Illinois, died over the weekend from cancer.

On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and our client and her family, I want to express our deep appreciation for all the people who came out and demonstrated support for Student A at the District 211 Board meeting this week. We are so grateful for the overwhelming support, and the many, eloquent voices who spoke up for her, stating clearly that this teenage girl should not be denied access to the locker room simply because she in transgender.

Earlier this week, the ACLU of Illinois urged Governor Rauner to re-think his plan to ban Syrian refugees who are fleeing the brutality of ISIS, given the serious legal ramifications of such a ban. ACLU of Illinois Board member Shermin Kruse provides this compelling first-hand account of why the U.S. must continue to welcome refugees. My introduction to religious oppression and bloody conflict came early in life. I

This afternoon, a Cook County Circuit Court will hear argument in a case seeking the release of video recorded by a Chicago police dashboard camera, video that shows the shooting death of Chicago teen Laquan McDonald.  The video has been the subject of wide discussion and speculation, including vivid descriptions of the video’s contents in the media. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois today issued the following statement regarding this matter. 

The ACLU represents the family of a female student denied access to the locker room at her high school because she is transgender. Recently the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights found that the school was violating the girl’s federally-protected rights. The family has not spoken about this case, seeking to protect their family’s privacy. The mother of the student, however, shared this statement with the ACLU. We are pleased to share it with you. 

This letter to the editor appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, November 10.

The Chicago Reporter spoke with Ed Yohnka, the ACLU of Illinois' Director of Communications and Public Policy, for an article about a recent New York Times analysis that found Chicago may be the worst city to "drive while black." The data found that black drivers in Chicago are 5.2 times more likely than white drivers to be subject to a consent search. The ACLU of Illinois has analyzed traffic stop data in Chicago for years and has also continually found a significant racial disparity in the use of consent searches. The traffic stop data highlighting consent searches throughout the state is released on an annual basis under the Illinois Traffic Stop Statistical Study Act of 2003, a measure originally championed by then State Senator Barack Obama.

Last week, a suburban Chicago school district – High School District 211 – announced that they would not comply with a ruling by the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) that the District was in violation of Title IX. The violation occurred when the District refused to allow our client, a high school girl, to use the girls’ locker room just because she is transgender. In speaking with the media and in school newsletters and a column in the suburban Daily Herald, Mr. Cates, the District superintendent, presented a remarkably distorted view of the process leading up to OCR’s decision. Worse still, he presented an insensitive and inaccurate depiction of what it means to be transgender and sent a message to our client and other transgender students that they are not viewed as equal to the other students in District 211.

It’s a horrifying scenario: you get assaulted. You call 911 for help. Then you get evicted because you called the police for help. This is very real for many people living across the state.So-called “crime-free housing” or “nuisance” property ordinances often penalize tenants and landlords when police are called in response to alleged criminal activity at a property. A new Illinois law aims to protect victims of crime from the harms of these ordinances. The new law removes the threat of punishment and bars local governments from enacting or enforcing ordinances that punish tenants or landlords for calls to police in response to incidents of domestic or sexual violence or on behalf of a person with disabilities.