The fate of whether cash bail will be eliminated in Illinois is in the hands of the state’s Supreme Court. The lawsuit pits the state’s Democratic governor, attorney general and legislative leaders against roughly half of Illinois’ state’s attorneys.
The fate of whether cash bail will be eliminated in Illinois is now in the hands of the state’s Supreme Court justices, who Tuesday heard arguments about the constitutionality of the pre-trial detention provisions of the 2021 criminal justice overhaul titled the SAFE-T Act.
Both sides can agree on this much: The justices’ decision on the case will have major ramifications on the future of the criminal justice system in Illinois.The first argument is that the legislature can’t just abolish monetary bail because the state constitution references “bail.” Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Rowe told justices such a change requires a constitutional amendment, as he said the state did in 1982 and 1986 when voters approved bail changes.
“The judiciary has an inherent judicial authority to set bail, to deny bail, to control the proceedings before it, because it is necessary to maintain the administrative functions of the court, to maintain an orderly process of criminal procedure,” said Will County assistant state’s attorney Alan Spellberg.
“The legislature is charged with making big decisions about the way that things should operate in this state, and that is the kind of fundamental point here,” Hemmer said. “The legislature has made exactly that decision about the way that people should be treated while they are pending trial and presumed innocent. There is nothing in the constitution that prohibits that decision.”
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