Article originally appeared on www.westernjournal.com.
“No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session,” American lawyer, politician and newspaper editor Gideon T. Tucker wrote in 1866.
How could the Honorable Mr. Tucker have known about 21st-century Illinois way back then?
Most of that state’s SAFE-T Act went into effect on Sunday, putting new constraints on law enforcement and giving new freedom to criminals.
Thankfully, a last-minute ruling Saturday by the Illinois Supreme Court suspended one of the worst aspects of the new law: elimination of cash bail, similar to what has occurred in New York state.
But it’s still a bad law, described by one of its opponents as the “most dangerous” he’s ever seen.
And Democratic Illinois Speaker of the House Emanuel “Chris” Welch has been aggressively pushing it, despite protests by Republicans of the 750-page bill crammed through both the state House and Senate in three days, …
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