Dupage Policy Journal

DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin and Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser have filed with the Illinois Supreme Court for clarification on the SAFE-T Act, of which a large part was struck down as unconstitutional in late December. 

In a joint statement, Berlin and Mosser said their "top priority is to protect the public," and have "no personal or political agenda regarding the Safe-T-Act and remain committed to serving the residents of DuPage and Kane Counties under legislation passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor.” 

“On October 3, 2022, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin, a Republican, and Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser, a Democrat, accepted an invitation from Illinois Senate President Don Harmon’s Deputy Chief of Staff to serve on a group of stakeholders that included only three State’s Attorneys to remedy what we and many others viewed as glaring deficiencies in the new Safe-T-Act legislation as written and passed by the General Assembly,” Berlin and Mosser said. “We are very proud of our work and the improvements advanced by this group, which were passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by the Governor on December 6, 2022. In our opinion, these amendments go a long way in rectifying many, but not all, of the anticipated problems if the law was allowed to go into effect as written."

According to the two state's attorneys, "Recent legal filings and court rulings, however, have put the implementation of the Safe-T-Act into question, specifically, confusion statewide regarding the legal impact of 21st Circuit Court Judge Thomas Cunnington’s ruling on all 102 counties in Illinois.” 

“This afternoon, our offices filed an Emergency Motion for Supervisory Order with the Illinois Supreme Court seeking clarification regarding implementation of the Act which will go into effect on January 1, 2023," Berlin and Mosser said. "Specifically, the Motion asks the Supreme Court to ‘exercise its supervisory authority to enter an order sufficient to maintain consistent pretrial procedures because, without such an order, defendants in different jurisdictions will be subject to different treatment upon arrest and throughout pretrial proceedings, creating an equal protection problem for citizens across the State.’” 

The Illinois State Supreme ruled on Dec. 31 - the day before the sweeping criminal justice reform was set to take effect - the law’s implementation should be delayed given rulings in lowers courts, according to CBS News.

The law had been ruled unconstitutional earlier in the week by Kankakee County Chief Judge Thomas W. Cunnington, of the 21st Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois. “The administration of the justice system is an inherent power of the courts upon which the legislature may not infringe and the setting of bail falls within that administrative power, the appropriateness of bail rests with the authority of the court and may not be determined by legislative fiat,” Cunnington wrote in his decision.

A group of 65 state’s attorneys banded together to challenge the law in Cunnington’s court. Several others followed suit with mirroring legislation after Cunnington’s ruling. “This is a victory for the rule of law, which unfortunately the Illinois General Assembly and the Governor disregarded when passing this ‘solution in search of a problem’ legislation,” McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally, McHenry Times reported. “It is the legislative process, not the criminal justice system, that is broken in Illinois.” Kenneally also argued that “Instead of drafting bail reform in collaboration with actual experts, such as judges, prosecutors, police, and defense attorneys who seek justice in courtrooms every day, the General Assembly and the Governor chose to enact the sophomoric ideas of well-financed activists.”