Police Accountability Forum

Thanks to everyone who attended the Police Accountability Forum CLE, co-hosted by the American Constitution Society on June 16th. As a follow-up to the forum, we present this editorial from the Civil Liberties Committee of the Chicago Council of Lawyers, our partner in the Collaboration for Justice....
June 29, 2015
Illinois State Capitol, Photo by Daniel Schwen

Drug Field Testing Bill Passes

  Last week, HB0356, a bill establishing a pilot drug field-testing program for the city of Chicago passed both houses of the Illinois legislature. The bill, chiefly sponsored by Representative Zalewski in the House and Senator Harmon in the Senate, was developed in collaboration with Chicago...
June 1, 2015

The Daily Law Bulletin Covers Judicial Elections in their Law Day Issue

The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin examined the issue of money in judicial elections in their annual Law Day issue last Sunday, April 26th. Staff Attorney Elizabeth Monkus was among the people interviewed for the article, which was framed around the Williams-Yulee case, which was still pending in the Su...
May 11, 2015

Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Supporting Field Testing Bill

  Today the Chicago Sun-Times issued an editorial in support of the Field Drug Testing Pilot Bill that Chicago Appleseed was instrumental in developing. The editorial can be found here and previous entries on our blog describing the issue can be found here.  The current version of the bill HB3...
May 5, 2015

Child Support Enforcement and the Function of Family Courts

This week, the New York Times published a story about how the child support enforcement systems and policies in U.S. court create a cycle of non-payment by middle and low income parents: Skip Child Support. Go to Jail. Lose Job. Repeat. Unpaid child support became a big concern in the 1980s and ’90s...
April 22, 2015