Illinois Supreme Court Halts Elimination of Cash-Bail
Just hours before the controversial legal overhaul known as the SAFE-T Act was set to take effect in Illinois, the state’s supreme court postponed the bill’s abolition of the cash-bail system.
The SAFE-T Act, set to take effect on January 1, would eliminate the cash-bail system through a provision known as the Pretrial Fairness Act. The provision drew bipartisan criticism, including from many law-enforcement officials who deemed the move unconstitutional and a danger to public safety.
The Illinois supreme court has not set a date to hear appeals in the case, so it’s unclear when or whether the provision eliminating cash-bail will take effect.
The announcement by the Illinois Supreme Court late Saturday pausing the cash-bail component of SAFE-T was celebrated by Kane and DuPage county state’s attorneys. “We are very pleased with the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision,” the pair said in a joint statement provided to CBS Chicago.
Earlier this week, Kankakee County chief judge Thomas Cunnington ruled in favor of 64 counties whose lawsuits against the state were consolidated, finding that “the appropriateness of bail rests with the authority of the court and may not be determined by legislative fiat.” The state’s Democratic-appointed attorney general, Kwame Raoul, appealed the decision Friday, seeking to overturn Cunnington’s ruling.
“We look forward to mounting a robust defense of the constitutionality of the law…and ensuring that it goes into effect across the state,” Raoul said in response to the ruling.
The SAFE-T Act was the brainchild of Illinois’s governor J.B. Pritzker, who some have suggested as a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2024. The bill was widely criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike, who accused Pritzker and his allies in the legislature of ignoring record-breaking levels of violent crime in Chicago.
“The first thing about this bill I would say is it’s unprecedented,” Thomas Haine, the Republican state’s attorney of Madison County told National Review in October.
“As far as I can tell, it is the first complete elimination of cash bail,” he continued. “From my mind, it’s the story of the century. You have a complete revolution in the cash-bail set-up in Illinois that was passed without any understanding of what it contained.”
