News & Commentary

Well, you could see that one comin’.

The ACLU of Illinois will provide legal representation for a Peoria man responsible for a Twitter account that parodied the Mayor of Peoria, Jim Ardis. Peoria police raided the home of Jon Daniel on April 15, seizing cell phones, computers and other items they suspected were related to the Twitter account. The ACLU of Illinois believes that parody is protected speech and that Daniel's Fourth Amendment rights were also violated. The Peoria Journal Star spoke with Communications and Public Policy Director Ed Yohnka:

The ACLU of Illinois lost a friend and supporter with the death of Paul Lutter on May 4, 2014. An attorney with Bryan Cave LLC, Lutter was an associate and then partner at Ross and Hardies from 1971-2003 and focused primarily on estate and tax law. Born in 1946, Lutter took pride in his family’s Chicago history noting that the Lutter Brick Company helped to rebuild the city after the great fire of 1875. A Phi Beta Kappa 1968 graduate of Carleton College, Lutter received his law degree from Yale in 1971.

The ACLU of Illinois has long been concerned about use of surveillance cameras by Chicago law enforcement - particularly the use of cameras with increasingly sophisticated technology, including the ability to zoom in and track an individual's movements. Senior Staff Attorney Adam Schwartz spoke with the Chicago Sun-Times about the installation of new red-light cameras with a 360 degree panning technology:

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The newly appointed Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Bobbie Gregg, cites budget constraints, staff morale and continuity issues as significant challenges facing the department. Since 1991, the department has operated under a federal court consent decree designed to improve the care and services DCFS provides to children under its care. The terms of the consent decree, which is monitored by the ACLU of Illinois, established department operating standards, including caseload maximums for child abuse investigators. Benjamin Wolf, associate legal director of the ACLU of Illinois maintains that Gregg needs to immediately address the departments deteriorating level of operations:

U.S. Judge Matthew Kennelly approved a comprehensive remedial plan to address the issues first raised by the ACLU of Illinois in a 2012 lawsuit against the Department of Juvenile Justice and confirmed by a consent decree signed by both parties in December 2012. The plan establishes parameters and time tables under which the department needs to address issues of confinement, community placement, safety, and how it provides mental health and educational services. ACLU of Illinois staff attorney Lindsey Miller explained that the plan establishes enforceable rations between staff and incarcerated youth and mandates full-day education programs:

A survey by the Journal of American Medical Association, released this week, reveals that seven out of ten Americans support the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employer sponsored health care packages include contraceptive coverage. Seven out of ten Americans clearly understand that contraceptive coverage is a critical health care issue for women.Yet, for the next few months, the country is debating a very real questio

Oklahoma City – In response to the botched execution of Clayton Lockett, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma has issued the below statements and is immediately calling for a full and open investigation into the execution. The ACLU of Oklahoma is also calling for an immediate moratorium on all executions pending the outcome of this investigation and for full and complete transparency regarding the execution process in Oklahoma.