News & Commentary

As Illinois entered the new fiscal year without an approved budget, our State’s most vulnerable residents faced cataclysmic cuts in state services.Here at the ACLU, we were especially concerned that our clients in four federal court lawsu

Earlier this morning, U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Alonso approved an order mandating the State of Illinois to continue to fund programs, services, and personnel within the Department of Children and Family Services during the current budget impasse. The order enforces the requirements of a consent decree overseen by the ACLU of Illinois, which requires the State to provide constitutionally-required services to the children under the care of DCFS. The State joined the ACLU in seeking the order approved by Judge Alonso this morning.

The Youth Project wrote about the impact of the state of Illinois' budget crisis on services for foster children under the care of the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS). As Governor Bruce Rauner and Illinois legislators continue to argue over the state's fiscal health, funds for DCFS children face dire straits. For decades, the ACLU of Illinois has monitored DCFS under a consent decree designed to protect the safety and wellbeing of children under the agency's care. The Youth Project spoke with the ACLU of Illinois' associate legal director Ben Wolf about the lack of oversight in addressing problems within the agency:

With the Supreme Court's ruling that struck down bans on same-sex marriages throughout the country, advocates throughout Illinois celebrated, despite having won the freedom to marry statewide last year. The Chicago Tribune spoke with the ACLU of Illinois' LGBT and HIV Project Director John Knight about what the ruling means for same-sex couples in Illinois:

Adam Schwartz was interviewed about fusion centers for Reason TV. Fusion centers are state or local law enforcement agencies that gather and store information about people suspected of criminal activity, and share that information with other law enforcement and intelligence agencies.  In 2012, the ACLU of Illinois released a report on "Fusion Centers in Illinois" which found that the two fusion centers operating in Illinois at the time lacked some critical safeguards to protect the privacy of Illinois residents. Watch the segment below:

In a news analysis piece for Truthout, journalist Victoria Law profiles a young man, DeAngelo Cortijo, who was detained in a California juvenile prison beginning at age 11. The article describes Cortijo's horrifying experience of being detained in solitary confinement for seven and a half months straight when he was 17 years old. As California and other states continue the fight to limit solitary confinement for youth like Cortijo, prison reform advocates across the nation are referencing the ACLU of Illinois lawsuit, RJ v. Jones, that brought about the end of solitary confinement for youth detained in Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice facilities. The new policies reached through a settlement agreement in the case prohibit the use of solitary confinement as a means of punishment, and require youth who are in solitary confinement for 24 hours or more to spend eight hours per day out of their cell. Law spoke with ACLU of Illinois senior staff counsel Adam Schwartz, who was the lead attorney in the case, about the conditions in Illinois' juvenile justice facilities at the time the case was filed:

The Chicago Sun-Times published an editorial blasting the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) for the lack of a response to the report released in an ACLU of Illinois case challenging IDOC for failing to provide adequate medical care for its prisoners. The report was a result of a court-appointed panel of medical experts' evaluation of medical facilities within IDOC. The study cites sweeping problems throughout a broad range a medical services, including unqualified and incompetent physicians and nurses, inadequate medical leadership and unsanitary conditions within the facilities. Most notably, the report found that 60% of non-violent deaths show "significant lapses in care."

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut, the landmark Supreme Court case that struck down as unconstitutional criminal bans on the sale of contraceptives.

Earlier today, the Illinois Senate approved House Bill 0218, sponsored by Senator Michael Noland, by a vote of 37 to 19. HB0218 creates a new civil law violation, non-criminal penalty (resulting in a fine) for a person found to be in possession of 15 grams of marijuana or less for personal use.