News & Commentary

Legislation now before the Illinois House of Representatives would give state judges the authority to determine whether or not to try juveniles as adults. Current Illinois laws allow prosecutors to automatically transfer juveniles, suspected of committing serious crimes, to adult court to face criminal charges. The ACLU of Illinois consistently maintains that trying youth in adult court has significant negative effects on public safety. The Daily Journal’s opinion piece by John Maki, of the John Howard Association, points out that the decision to charge a seventeen year old, accused of committing a violent crime, as an adult should be decided in court by a judge considering all the details of the case, rather than in the private offices of prosecutors. Maki sites studies which reveal racial disparities that stem from prosecutors’ application of automatic transfers. He argues that Illinois laws should be amended to give youth offenders the opportunity to:

Ten years ago in March, Lisa and I were first in line when Multnomah County issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples. We married immediately in our church, with our ministers, blessed with the presence of friends.Ten years ago in Novem

With over two decades of service to Latta, South Carolina openly-gay Police Chief Crystal Moore enjoyed a controversy-free record until a new mayor set out to fire her. Within months of taking office, Mayor Earl Bullard issued seven reprimands against Moore, all within the same day, and fired her. South Carolina has no laws against LGBT job discrimination. The ACLU across the country and the ACLU of Illinois advocates and litigates against LGBT discrimination and the destructive, cruel humiliation Police Chief Moore was subjected to by an ignorant boss.  What happened to Moore can happen anywhere without civil rights protections:

Illinois laws which mandate young offenders be charged as adults, if arrested for serious crimes, cause tremendous injustice and result in racial discrimination according to a recent study by the nonpartisan Juvenile Justice Initiative. (The ACLU of Illinois is a member of the Juvenile Justice Initiative Coalition.) The study underscores the need to revamp the state’s 32 year-old laws which limit judicial discretion and which, according to the study, perpetuate, rather than curb, life-long criminal activity by the young offenders caught in the law’s web of injustice. The new study verifies the ACLU of Illinois position that trying youth in adult court has significant negative effects on public safety. The study maintains that defendants who leave juvenile court for adult court lose their best opportunity at rehabilitation, often end in prison with adults and are more likely to be caught in a cycle of recidivism. Of the 257 cases ( from 2010-2012) reviewed in the study, 83 of the defendants who were sent to adult court were black, 16 percent were Hispanic; only one defendant was a non-minority. The most perturbing finding of the study showed that 54 percent of the juveniles were ultimately sentenced for a lesser crime than the one for which they were arrested; a crime infraction that would not have sent them to adult court in the first place. The General Assembly is considering legislation introduced by State Representative Elaine Nekritz to rescind the automatic transfer laws:

Writing in the Sun-Times, Cristal Thomas, deputy governor of Illinois, called on the Illinois Senate to pass House Bill 8. The bill would require employers in Illinois to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers, similar to those provided for workers with temporary disabilities. The ACLU of Illinois supports the legislation, sponsored by Representative Mary Flowers, which passed out of the Illinois House on April 10th.Thomas writes:

The Illinois House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation to protect the health and well-being of pregnant workers, recognizing that current state and federal laws fail to guarantee reasonable workplace accommodations for being pregnant. Sponsored by Rep. Mary Flowers and supported by the ACLU of Illinois, the bill would assure pregnant employees are granted simple, but health-protecting, accommodations that do not pose undue burdens on employers: more frequent bathroom and water breaks, the ability to have a place to sit, manual labor assistance, light duty assignments and schedule adjustments, post-partum time off, and access to a private breast-feeding area upon returning to work. None of these types of accommodations are legally available to pregnant workers under existing laws creating the need for legislative action.

According to columnist Michael Sneed, Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office predicts that it will soon issue the 1000th marriage license to same-sex couples. In February, Federal Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ruled for immediate marriage equality in Lee v. Orr, a suit brought by the ACLU of Illinois and Lambda Legal, and ordered the Cook County Clerk’s office to promptly begin issuing marriage license to same sex applicants. Since then the office reports processing over 950 license applications and that a third of the applicant couples traveled from other Illinois counties to Orr’s office to obtain a marriage license. The Clerk’s office anticipates reaching the 1000 milestone as soon as Friday. Courtney Greve a spokeswoman for Orr’s office stated:

Too often, a pregnant worker is forced to make an impossible decision: keep working and risk her health and pregnancy or lose her job and ability to support her family.But thanks to legislation approved by the Illinois House of Representatives last Thursday, pregnant women will soon have a real choice. Sponsored by Rep. Mary Flowers, House Bill 8 allows pregnant workers to stay on the job and support their families by requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers.Most Illinois women cann

Illinois may follow the path of sixteen other states and revise its out-of-date, discriminatory laws against marijuana, Examiner.com writes. State Representative Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) introduced legislation, now under consideration in the Illinois House, to address the incredibly high expenditures required to enforce current anti-marijuana laws in Illinois. These laws also are enforced disproportionately on people of color, especially young men of color. Though pot-use percentages are similar across all social and racial demographics, studies show that in Chicago, since August 2012 when the city lowered possession penalties, 78 percent of those arrested for possessing small amounts, were black. This cost the Chicago Police Department in 2013 over $23 million, and 46,000 police man-power hours. Cassidy’s bill, which is supported by the ACLU of Illinois, approaches the problem with a solid understanding of all sides of the drug-use issue, from law enforcement safety needs as well as the long term impact of possession records. The bill focuses on less criminality, not on decriminalization, and it would expunge possession records. Ed Yohnka, ACLU of Illinois Director of Communications and Public Policy, maintains that Cassidy’s bill would avoid the: