SPRINGFIELD (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the elimination of cash bail is indeed constitutional, overturning a Kankakee County judge’s prior ruling.
Justices voted five-to-two in favor of incorporating the measure in the Safe-T Act crime bill.
“Our constitution creates a balance between the individual rights of defendants and the individual rights of crime victims. The Act’s pretrial release provisions set forth procedures commensurate with that balance,” wrote Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis in her majority opinion.
Justice David Overstreet was one of the justices who dissented.
“Before the legislature can abolish monetary bail,effectively requiring the “amount” of bail to be zero for every criminal proceeding in this state, the legislature must first ask the people to again exercise their ultimate sovereign power and reconsider the scope of this constitutionally protected right,” he wrote.
In December of 2022, a Kankakee County judge sided with authorities representing more than 60 of the state's 102 counties, who sued to stop the legislation and said it violates the Illinois Constitution.
The controversial and sweeping SAFE-T Act was first signed into law by Governor Pritzker in 2021. A portion of the SAFE-T Act called the “Pre-trial Fairness Act” eliminates cash bail. Under the legislation, for those charged, judges would decide who remains locked up while awaiting trial, rather than requiring defendants to pay bail to be released from jail.
Pritzker signed an amended version of the bill last December. These revisions included an option for those already in jail to request to be under the new no-cash bail system as well as . expanded the list of crimes in which someone can be denied pretrial release.
On January 1, the Supreme Court issued a statewide stay of the new legislation, stopping the new system to take effect. Tuesday’s ruling lifts that hold.
“I’m pleased that the Illinois Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the SAFE-T Act and the elimination of cash bail. We can now move forward with historic reform to ensure pretrial detainment is determined by the danger an individual poses to the community instead of by their ability to pay their way out of jail,” Pritzker said in a statement.
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Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.