Grundy Reporter

State Rep. Jackie Haas (R-Kankakee) shared an update on a legal challenge to the SAFE-T Act in a Facebook post published April 1.

"Now that oral arguments have been heard by the Illinois Supreme Court about the SAFE-T Act, we await the Justices' ruling on the constitutionality of this deeply flawed law," she wrote.

According to NBC Chicago, the State Supreme Court heard arguments on March 14 regarding the constitutionality of Illinois' SAFE-T Act, which – among other measures – would eliminate the use of cash bail. State Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed an appeal to an earlier decision made by Kankakee County Chief Judge Thomas Cunnington ruling that the bill was unconstitutional. Cunnington said that the bail reform and pre-trial release provisions in the Pre-Trial Fairness Act are unconstitutional. He also ruled that the SAFE-T Act violated the Separation of Powers Clause, the Victims Rights Act, and unconstitutionally amended Article 1, Section 9 of the constitution, which codified cash bail into state law.

"Today’s ruling affirms that we are still a government of the people, and that the Constitutional protections afforded to the citizens of Illinois – most importantly the right to exercise our voice with our vote – are inalienable," Kankakee County State's Attorney Jim Rowe said in a statement following the ruling.

The Supreme Court will have to decide whether the bill violates a clause in the state's constitution concerning the use of bail, with lawyers on both sides of the argument discussing the definition of the term as originally written in the document. The Supreme Court will also have to decide whether or not the bill violates the Separation of Powers Clause in the constitution.

The SAFE-T Act, which would've also put restrictions on uses of force, among other provisions, was passed in 2021 and was initially set to go into effect on Jan. 1.