The SAFE-T Act is stopped cold

The world is not going to be saved by legislation. – William Howard Taft

The most controversial parts of the SAFE-T Act have been struck down – as they should’ve been – but not for the reasons most of you wanted to see that legislation slide into the realm of historically bad ideas like Microsoft’s BOB, flaming cellphones, or any form of cryptocurrency.

That inevitable demise started with Kankakee 21st Circuit Judge Thomas Cunnington hearing a consolidated lawsuit on behalf of 65 Illinois state’s attorneys who argued the Generally assembly vastly overstepped their bounds when they voted to eliminate cash bond in early 2022. The Judge agreed with the plaintiffs contentions striking down the statute’s pretrial release and cashless bail stipulations days before they were to take effect

In a 36-page opinion, Cunnington ruled that the SAFE-T Act violates the separation of powers clause, the Victim Rights Act, and illegally amends Article 1, Section 9 of the Illinois Constitution by denying the voters their right to weigh in on this de facto Amendment shift. He further noted that, “had the legislature wanted to change the provisions in the Constitution regarding eliminating monetary bail … they should have submitted the question on the ballot to the electorate at a general election.”

I have to say I’m really starting to like the judge.

Cunnington added that the separation of power violation “stripped away the court’s ability to ensure the safety of the victim and the victim’s family,” and that, “the appropriateness of bail rests with the authority of the court and may not be determined by legislative fiat.”

Letting judges be judges? What a novel concept!

Faced with the absurd prospect of two-thirds of the state following the old bond process, while the other third forged ahead with the new one, the Illinois Supreme Court appropriately stepped in to stay those problematic provisions until they can hear Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s appeal of Cunnington’s ruling.

Regardless of who wins that one, we all know this is headed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ain’t this just like Illinois Democrats, who without any meaningful checks and balances, fervently believe they’re not bound by anything, much less the state Constitution. Virtually the same BS happened with the “Worker’s Rights Amendment” which was the unions’ answer to the court’s ruling that they couldn’t force public employees to join their ranks. That more than questionable Constitutional Amendment managed to make it past the voters, but it will ultimately fall to survive the first serious legal challenge.

Those legislators were even worse in the SAFE-T regard.

Emboldened by their supermajority status, that Springfield black caucus met in secret – purposely excluding those heinous Republican and barring any law enforcement input – to come up with the kind of ill-conceived bill that sounds a lot like something a suburban homeowner’s association might concoct.

Governor J.B. Pritzker and his lackies did make a half-hearted attempt to moderate the bill before January 1, but that’s only because their predicted 20-point landslides failed to materialize after slimy political operative Dan Proft unleashed a torrent of commercials effectively excoriating the Dem’s for this terrible piece of legislation.

Call me crazy, but wouldn’t you think at least one person in the Governor’s office would’ve piped up and said, “Considering that we’re the first state to attempt to completely eliminate cash bail, Shouldn’t we run this thing by a group of independent constitutional attorneys before we might badly embarrass ourselves?”

A newly Democratic Illinois Supreme Court ain’t gonna save Pritzker’s ample ass this time, either. Those justices know this battle won’t end with them and they HATE being reversed – a likely occurrence with the current conservative SCOTUS.  Even they can’t rule around the reality that the only way to amend the Illinois Constitution is through direct voter consent.

The massive irony here is that the Dem’s attempt to do an end run around the process has almost certainly doomed any similar subsequent effort. Considering all the terrible publicity surrounding the SAFE-T Act, how will anyone ever get 60 percent of Illinois voters to approve any form of bail reform in the foreseeable future?

Can you say, “Hoist by their own petard?” I knew you could!

The truly sad thing in all of this is there’s a real value to some saner sort of bi-partisan bail reform. No one can argue that white folks receive a disproportionate amount of the judicial benefit of the doubt, and no non-violent offender should sit in jail at taxpayer expense and lose their job simply because they can’t afford to post a minor bond amount.

But no! Whatever merit there may have been in the SAFE-T act has been rendered moot by yet another absurd Democratic overreach that only serves to create and reinforce the very reality they tried to legislate away. It certainly didn’t help matters that state rep Justin Slaughter raised his gloved fist in a black power salute immediately after the bill passed, because that kind of rank political gloating has a way of coming around and biting you in the butt.

The remedy for bad or biased judges isn’t another “legislative fiat,” it’s to create a system that holds them accountable for those bad and biased decisions.

So, for absolutely no good reason, bond reform is officially dead in the Land of Lincoln. All I can say to my minority readers is, “With friends like that General Assembly supermajority, who needs enemies?”