Prairie State Wire

The Illinois Freedom Caucus is celebrating the SAFE-T Act being overturned in part as unconstitutional. 

The group claimed it was a "HUGE Victory Yesterday for Illinois on the UN-SAFE-T ACT!" 

“Yesterday, Chief Judge Thomas Cunnington of the 21st Judicial Circuit affirmed what the members of the Illinois Freedom Caucus have been saying since day one about the SAFE-T ACT,” the Illinois Freedom Caucus said on Facebook. “The abolishment of cash bail, and egregious inmate release policy put forward by the SAFE-T ACT is not only dangerous, but outright Unconstitutional.” 

Kankakee County Chief Judge Thomas W. Cunnington, of the 21st Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois, was responsible for the ruling. In his decision, he noted that “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.” 

Chicago-Kent criminal law professor Richard Kling said the ruling was a forgone conclusion. “The arguments raised all had merit, they weren’t frivolous,” Kling said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The SAFE-T Act will still be implemented on Jan. 1 in the 37 counties not included in the lawsuit, including Cook County. In those counties, thousands of inmates currently being held in jails while they await trial on serious crimes would be released. But after the recent ruling, the 65 counties involved in the lawsuit will not be subject to those provisions of the SAFE-T Act. The Act underwent changes after a campaign communications blitz revealed several glaring errors in the law. No Republicans voted for the bill or the subsequent changes. When the Safe-T Act is implemented in the surviving counties, those charged with the most heinous crimes—such as robbery, kidnapping, arson, second-degree murder, intimidation, aggravated battery, aggravated DUI, aggravated flight, drug-related homicide, and threatening a public official—will be freed, as Will County Gazette previously reported.

The Illinois Freedom Caucus is comprised of GOP State Reps. Chris Miller, Brad Halbrook, Dan Caulkins, Adam Niemerg, and Blaine Wilhour. It is part of the broader State Freedom Caucus Network. “We need patriots who will serve in our state capitals to fight federal overreach and stand firm against those — in both parties — who prioritize seizing political power over representing constituents,” the group’s website reads.