Despite legal limbo, Illinois' elimination of cash bail set to take effect Jan. 1

CHICAGO — The Illinois criminal justice system is set for a major makeover beginning Sunday, replacing a cash-bail structure with one that requires judges to more carefully weigh who among the accused should be held in custody before trial without using money as a factor.

But for how long the new method will remain in place is unclear, growing murky after a Kankakee County judge this week ruled the elimination of cash bail and other pretrial reforms passed by the Illinois General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker were unconstitutional.

Judge Thomas Cunnington sided with state’s attorneys from more than 60 counties — mostly downstate — who oppose the reforms in the SAFE-T Act and made several allegations in a lawsuit, including that the state legislature violated the separation-of-powers clause in the Illinois Constitution by interfering with the judiciary’s ability to set bail.

As Attorney General Kwame Raoul has vowed to appeal the ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court, it remains to be seen whether the high court will step in to put the pretrial provisions on hold.

If the court makes no decision to pause matters by Sunday, counties that were part of the lawsuit could remain under the traditional cash-bail system, while others that weren’t part of the litigation — including Cook, DuPage and Lake — could move to the new pretrial-detention process.

Officials with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and the Cook County public defender’s office have said the county intends to proceed as planned with the new procedures on New Year’s Day.

Raoul’s office released a statement this week saying criminal defendants in all counties are not subject to Cunnington’s ruling.