News & Commentary

The constitutionality of a River Forest ordinance limiting political signs on residential properties is being questioned by a village trustee. The local River Forest publication, Forest Leaves, reports that Trustee Thomas Cargie questions the legality of the ordinance which specifies that only one political sign, of specific dimensions, may be posted in a yard. When questioned on the issue, ACLU spokesman Ed Yohnka pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court had stuck down a similar Missouri ordinance in 1994:

Continuing an argument that we saw throughout the debate over the freedom to marry, a defiant wedding purveyor vows to continue to turn away business from same-sex couples seeking to celebrate their marriages at his Paxton, Illinois bed and breakfast even if he loses a suit now before the Illinois Human Rights Commission.  Jim Walder told the Paxton Record that he expects the Illinois General Assembly to legislatively exempt business owners like himself from the state’s Marriage Equality Act if their religious beliefs oppose same-sex marriages. He and his lawyer further maintained that they are prepared to appeal any ruling not in their favor on the pending law-suit.  The ACLU of Illinois, which brought the suit against Walder when he refused to book a civil union celebration at his Timber Creek Bed and Breakfast in 2011, told the Paxton Record that the fight for equality for same-sex couples will continue:

A human tragedy unfolds in Texas as a collision of patient rights, standard medical practices, and rigidly applied state laws battle over who controls death. According to The New York Times, a Fort Worth Texas hospital has over-ruled a patient’s wishes, and those of her family, refusing to disconnect the brain-dead woman from life support systems because she is 14 weeks pregnant. The hospital maintains it is doing so in compliance with Texas state law.  ACLU of Illinois executive director Colleen Connell recently addressed a similar issue noting:

One issue facing many counties across the nation is the lack of resources being committed to defender services in our system of justice. This issue was highlighted in a news analysis article by The New York Times looking at two innovative approaches to raising the quality of public defender representation.

The Guttmacher Institute just released data showing a startling trend: more laws were enacted to restrict abortion in the past three years than there have been in the entire decade. The report illustrates a nationwide shift creating significant barriers to reproductive health resources even in the past year alone. Indeed, 2013 proved to be second only to 2011, as the year the highest number of abortion restrictions were created -- ever. This grim analysis, while it may not be hopeful at first glance, calls on the reproductive justice community to roll up its proverbial sleeves as we move ahead into 2014.The spike evidenced in the chart above, is a result of several factors. For one, several states didn't have legislative sessions in 2012, and also, the elections brought more anti-abortion lawmakers to the table in 2013. Perhaps the most troubling statistics gleaned from the report are the ones that show an increase in the number of states that have converted to what Guttmacher deems "hostile" to abortion rights. This category is defined by a state that has four or more types of major abortion restrictions on the books. But what this means is that a majority of women now live in states with numerous laws restricting abortion, as illustrated below:The four types of abortion restrictions referenced in the report are: abortion bans, restrictions on abortion providers, limitations on the provision of medication abortion and restrictions on coverage of abortion in private health plans. Illinois experienced a huge blow in a different realm of abortion restriction. In July, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld the Parental Notice of Abortion Act, which now requires minors seeking an abortion to have an adult family member be notified 48 hours before the procedure takes place. The ACLU of Illinois responded by creating the Illinois Judicial Bypass Coordination Project, which includes a hotline for minors seeking abortion which provides information about Illinois’ parental notice law and connects young women with a free attorney if they need one.

The New York Times published a call from the National ACLU for the exoneration of Ed Snowden on espionage charges. The opinion piece written by Jameel Jaffer, ACLU Deputy Legal Director, reiterates all that the public has learned about N.S.A. programs and the agency’s infringement of accepted privacy standards since Snowden began releasing his information. Jaffer notes:

The New York Times writes that President Obama has received the report of a panel of experts tasked with analyzing and recommending reforms of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) intelligence gathering. The report recommends 46 changes to the agency’s current operations. The five independent intelligence and legal experts completed their report on the heels of this week’s Federal Court ruling questioning the constitutionality of the agency’s indiscriminate collection of phone-use data. The ACLU has also challenged the legality of the data gathering programs in a suit now pending in Federal Court:

The Windy City Times reports that Lazaro v. Orr has been dismissed. The ACLU Illinois and Lambda Legal, filed a motion to dismiss the twin cases that had they filed in 2012 (Lambda Legal's Darby v. Orr and ACLU's Lazaro v. Orr, respectively), which, on behalf of 25 same sex couples, challenged the then existing state marriage-discrimination laws. All parties agreed that passage of the Illinois marriage equality act made the suit moot.  Ed Yohnka, ACLU of Illinois' Director of Communications and Public Policy clarified the distinction between Lazaro vs. Orr and other cases filed against unequal treatment of same sex partners:

WBEZ investigative series on Illinois children in-need, reports that the Illinois Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health has dramatically reduced the number of Individual Care Grants (ICG) given to families with mentally ill children. The grants were established to support families whose children need mental health care, helping to keep families together and averting mental health crises for their children. WBEZ found 11 ICG grants issued in 2013, down from 124 in 2006. WBEZ reports: