By CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker and Illinois Democrats warned of an “end to the constitutional right to privacy” if a leaked U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the 1973 landmark decision in Roe v. Wade becomes finalized as precedent.

“It means women who lose access to the full suite of medical advances that give them choices in how and when they want to start a family are at risk,” Pritzker said at a morning news conference in Chicago.

At the same time, however, the Democrats touted a recent string of Illinois laws aimed at protecting the access to an abortion for Illinoisans and those visiting the state to receive reproductive health care.

The news conference was called in response to a Monday evening report from Politico that outlined the leaked draft decision that would strike down Roe v. Wade, a decision which has protected abortion rights as constitutional rights for nearly five decades.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start” and the issue of regulating abortion must be returned to the states.

Pritzker said that if the ruling stands as a reversal of 50 years of settled law, the implications on privacy and health care access could be dire.

“It’s not just that they’re taking away reproductive rights,” he said. “It’s that this is a slope that they’re headed down that is going to take away all of the rights that were granted as a result of the right to privacy. It’s a constitutional right to privacy, determined by the court 50 years ago and reinforced along the way, and now they’re taking it away.”

Advocates said overturning Roe would be devastating for millions who will be forced into unwanted pregnancies and that it will lead to illegal alternatives that could put the mother’s life at risk.

Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Chicago, said she worries that Black and Latino communities, which are already disproportionately impacted by lack of health care access, will be targeted and criminalized by anti-abortion laws.

Rep. Kelly Cassidy said uprooting the precedent in Roe could affect interpretations of law regarding birth control and marriage equality.

While Democrats said overturning Roe would mark a “dark day in our nation’s history,” they also credited their party for creating a “forcefield” to guarantee a women’s right to reproductive health care in Illinois.

In 2019, Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Act enshrining in state law the fundamental right to an abortion. In December 2021, he signed a law ending a requirement that doctors must notify parents of a minor seeking an abortion 48 hours prior to the procedure.

Planned Parenthood of Illinois projected that an additional 14,000 women from Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee would likely travel to southern Illinois for abortion care if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

GOP REACTION: GOP governor candidate and current state Sen. Darren Bailey, of Xenia, said in statement that he is “proudly pro-life” and that if elected governor, he will promote policies and groups that would empower women with “real options.” While he didn’t directly comment on the draft opinion, he said he would try to scale back recent changes made by Democrats.  

“As governor, my focus will be restoring parental notification, ending taxpayer-funded abortion, and prioritizing and ensuring viable options that save lives and support women and families before, during and after pregnancy,” Bailey said.

Bailey has received endorsements by the Illinois Federation for Right to Life, Illinois Citizens for Life and Illinois Family Action.

GOP governor candidate Jesse Sullivan said in a news release under the headline “prayer works” that he is “overjoyed at what could be a generational change in the soul of our country.”  

He noted that with the Supreme Court decision putting power back in the hands of the state, it “threatens to make Illinois’s current abortion laws even more heinous” and called for the end of late-term, partial-birth abortions and rollbacks of recent Illinois laws.

Gary Rabine, another GOP governor candidate, also said he welcomes the court’s reversal.

Richard Irvin, the Aurora mayor who has received the financial backing of megadonor Ken Griffin, was not among those issuing a statement, with his campaign declining to do so until a final decision is rendered by the court. His running mate, Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Morrisonville, is one of the staunchest anti-abortion lawmakers in the General Assembly.

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DENT DENIED: Former Chicago Bear, Pro Football Hall-of-Famer and 1986 Super Bowl MVP Richard Dent sought the identities of three employees of energy supplier Constellation NewEnergy Inc. in pretrial discovery in an effort to sue the individuals for defamation.  

But in a 4-2 decision, the Illinois

Supreme Court ruled that the accusers in this case have a “qualified privilege” to anonymity, which Dent failed to overcome, because their claims were made during a workplace investigation of sexual harassment.

Dent’s team blasted the decision as “without precedent” Friday and said it was planning to file a petition asking the court to revisit the decision, alleging it misunderstood or overlooked facts.

The basics of the case are that Dent’s energy supply, products and services company, RLD Resources, had several contracts with Constellation that were severed in 2018 after Constellation investigated a claim from a female employee who accused Dent of telling her she had a “butt like a sister” in 2016 in Philadelphia and groping her at an event in Chicago in 2018. The only named witness said they had seen Dent acting “drunk and disorderly” at a separate Chicago location prior to the alleged groping. Dent has denied the allegations.

The contracts were at-will, so Constellation had a legal right to sever them without cause. Dent was not suing Constellation for defamation, but for the names of the accusers who he believes defamed him.

Republican Justice Michael Burke wrote the majority opinion. Democrats Robert Carter and Mary Jane Theis joined Republican David Overstreet in the majority.

The opinion quoted a 1999 ruling in Vickers v. Abbott Laboratories, which stated, if “no privilege existed, then victims of harassment and companies with a goal of preventing harassment would be ‘handcuffed’ by a fear of defamation liability.”

While Dent didn’t know who the accusers were, Constellation did divulge the alleged misconduct. And in his petition to the court, the majority wrote, Dent failed to establish “any reckless act showing a disregard for Dent’s rights” – a necessity to overcome the privilege. 

Republican Justice Rita Garman wrote the dissent on behalf of her and Democratic Justice P. Scott Neville, stating she was “troubled” that the majority believed a party seeking defamation claims would have to allege concrete facts against a person whose identity is not known to overcome the privilege.   

“I am concerned that the majority opinion essentially treats the qualified privilege as an absolute privilege, which in turn endows a private company and its third-party investigators with quasi-judicial status and impermissibly deprives a class of individuals of the ability to restore their reputations following investigations that arguably lack procedural safeguards,” she wrote.

Dent’s attorney, Paul Neilan, said the team would petition the court for a rehearing under Supreme Court Rule 367, and he also took issue with giving the witness of “drunken disorderly conduct” the same privilege, even though he didn’t testify to the alleged groping.  

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STANDARDIZED TESTS: Teachers and other education professionals are urging the Illinois State Board of Education to reduce the amount of time students spend on standardized tests each year and to adopt a new testing system that produces more useful information to help teachers improve their instruction.

Under state and federal law, all students in grades 3-8 are tested each year in English language arts and math. They are also tested in science in grades 5, 8 and 11. In Illinois, those tests are known as the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, or IAR, and are taken by students in the spring.

Nationwide testing mandates are a product of the 2002 federal law known as the No Child Left Behind Act which uses them to hold teachers, schools and districts accountable for meeting state educational standards.

Recently, though, the State Board of Education has considered overhauling its testing system and at one point proposed replacing the single year-end test with three smaller tests that would be given in the fall, winter and spring. The plan also would have given districts the option of testing children in kindergarten through grade 2.

Amid pushback from teachers unions and others, however, ISBE backed away from that plan last year and instead commissioned a survey from the national Center for Assessment to get feedback from teachers, administrators, parents, students and others about ways to improve the state’s testing system.

The results of that survey were presented to the board April 20. Among the key findings was that many people found the current testing system doesn’t provide much instructionally useful information because the tests are administered in the spring and results aren’t released until the next fall after students have already advanced to another grade.

Many respondents also said too much time is devoted to preparing for and administering tests, taking away from actual classroom instruction.

Many people surveyed also suggested the state could provide more resources to help local districts give interim tests at different times of the year – tests that would be completely separate from the accountability tests given in the spring – to help teachers tailor their instruction to meet their students’ immediate needs.

Finally, the report recommended that ISBE take its time and move deliberately before making any major changes to the testing system.

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MORTGAGE ASSISTANCE: Gov. JB Pritzker was joined by the Illinois Housing Development Authority and local elected officials in Chicago Friday to promote the Illinois Emergency Homeowner Assistance Fund for struggling homeowners.

Overseen by IHDA, the emergency assistance fund is funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act and is dedicated to assisting Illinois homeowners who have struggled to pay their mortgage or other housing expenses such as utilities and home energy services due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

ARPA was passed by Congress in 2021 and Illinois received $309 million to cover housing costs such as past-due mortgage payments, property taxes, property insurance, and delinquent homeowner and condo association fees. Part of the delay in setting up the fund was a wait for federal approval.

Homeowners can apply for a grant up to $30,000 in mortgage support that will eliminate or reduce payments associated with homeownership.

To be approved, homeowners must consult with a certified Housing and Urban Development counselor or speak to their mortgage service provider to ask for help and then, depending on the outcome, apply for assistance through the IHDA online portal.

Applicants are required to have a certificate from a HUD-certified housing counselor or a letter from the mortgage servicer detailing efforts to resolve the delinquency.

To qualify, homeowners must be at least 30 days behind on their mortgage, have household income at or below 150 percent of the area median income, own and occupy the property as their primary residence and have experienced financial struggles directly related to COVID-19 on or after Jan. 21, 2020. 

When applying, homeowners will need to provide proof of identification, household income, household occupancy, ownership and delinquency of the mortgage, property tax, or insurance statements. 

People can apply for funds at no cost until the end of May through the IHDA website at www.ihda.org, or they can contact the Housing Assistance Fund call center for assistance at 866-454-3571.

The IHDA has also partnered with nonprofit housing counseling agencies, community-based organizations and legal aid groups to assist homeowners facing language or technological barriers to the online application portal.

Renters can apply for assistance through the Illinois Department of Human Services. Eligible households could receive up to 15 months of rent payments, including previous rent owed from June 2020 through August 2021.

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COOLEST THING MADE IN ILLINOIS: Rivian’s all-electric R1T truck is 2022’s “Coolest Thing Made in Illinois.”

That was the result of the third annual Makers Madness bracket-style tournament hosted by the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association which allows Illinoisans to vote for the “coolest” product made in the state.

This year’s winner was announced at the Governor’s Mansion Wednesday, April 27.

Manufactured in Normal, the R1T is the first electric truck in production that features four motors, eight driving modes and up to 400 miles of range on a single charge, combining off-road capabilities with the driving style of a sports car.

It can accelerate from zero to 60 in three seconds and has a towing capacity of up to 11,000 pounds.

James Chen, public policy vice president and chief regulatory counsel for Rivian, said the company’s mission is keeping the world “adventurous in technology,” innovation and collaboration while providing jobs that support the Bloomington-Normal community.

“We are proud to call Illinois home and honored to accept this year’s award,” he said.

Normal is home to the company’s first manufacturing campus where they build R1 products as well as commercial vans. They began production of the R1T in September 2021.

Over 400 products were submitted to this year’s Makers Madness competition with over 200,000 votes cast. 

The all-electric truck bested a diverse group of challengers, including General Mills’ Fruit by the Foot snack, which is made in Belvidere.

Another product in the final four was the Orion Spacecraft Capsule’s Aft Bulkhead and Barrel and Tunnel which was made for deep-space travel missions planned by NASA. It is manufactured by Ingersoll Machine Tools Inc. in Rockford.

The other product in the finals, custom blazed diffraction gratings, allow for the creation of ultra-high line density and high precision patterning of surfaces, and are used in virtual reality headsets, semiconductor manufacturing and X-ray technology. Its manufacturer is Inprentus Precision Optics of Champaign.

Gov. JB Pritzker presented the award and said the company has established itself as a national leader in the EV industry and that he “couldn’t think of a more fitting winner” in the wake of a new state law that aims to put 1 million EVs on state roads.

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HIGHWAY CAMERAS: A pair of bills on Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk would expand a state roadway camera monitoring program to 21 additional counties while also expanding the number of crimes the cameras can be used to investigate and the number of parties that can prosecute them.

The measures – House Bill 260 and House Bill 4481 – expand a pilot program that directs the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Illinois State Police and the Illinois Toll Highway Authority to increase the number of cameras on state roads through funding from the state’s Road Fund.

The bills received the backing of ISP, the state’s attorney general and broad majorities in the legislature.

But civil liberties advocates and lawmakers from each party aired concerns about potential misuse of the cameras, a lack of clarity regarding how camera placements will be chosen, and that an individual would be prohibited from accessing their own camera footage via the Freedom of Information Act.

The measures amend the 2020 Expressway Camera Act which currently covers automatic license plate reader technology only in Cook County. The cameras monitor a car’s rear license plate and send the information to a central location to be analyzed by software that allows law enforcement to place a vehicle at the scene of an expressway crime. The new measures would extend the program through June 2025.

HB 4481 would also expand it to state highways and expressways in the counties of Boone, Bureau, Champaign, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Henry, Kane, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, Macon, Madison, McHenry, Morgan, Peoria, Rock Island, Sangamon, St. Clair, Will and Winnebago.

But the new legislation, which passed 95-10 in the House and 48-5 in the Senate, contains no guidance for which roadways would receive cameras.

The budget signed this month by Pritzker includes $20 million from the state Road Fund for the expansion.

HB 260 would allow police to use camera footage to also investigate hijacking and forcible felonies such as murder, criminal sexual assault, robbery, burglary, arson, kidnapping and aggravated battery, along with offenses involving a firearm.

Using footage to enforce “petty offenses,” such as speeding, would remain prohibited. 

HB 260 would also give the attorney general’s office, along with local state’s attorneys, authority to prosecute forcible felony, gunrunning and firearms offenses on camera-monitored expressways. The measure saw roll calls of 97-10 in the House and 44-12 in the Senate.

HB 260 also requires state agencies to post online, within 90 days of the bill becoming law, details about program objectives, counties where it is operational, and policies under which the program operates.

Another provision would require state agencies to report to lawmakers each year on the costs related to the cameras and the number of times law enforcement accessed data to investigate the crimes outlined in the statute.

 

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government that is distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.