Critics expect chaos under Illinois bail ban despite ruling

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Critics are worried that Illinois eliminating cash bail Sunday will create chaos after a judge ruled the ban unconstitutional but failed to block it from going into effect.

House Republicans on Thursday urged Democrats who approved the plan nearly two years ago to halt and fix the so-called Pretrial Fairness Act, part of an expansive criminal justice overhaul, or push for a speedy appeal schedule after Kankakee County Judge Thomas Cunnington overturned the law.

But the judge denied the injunction that 64 state's attorneys and sheriffs sought in filing the case, leaving House Minority Leader Jim Durkin to decry a tilted system that would result, with criminal defendants released without bail in one county and, just miles away at the next courthouse, suspects holed up in a cell.

“We warned about the consequences of the legislation from the beginning,” said Durkin, a Republican from Western Springs. “Now the Democrats ... are feeling the consequences. We have a strong rebuke from a circuit court ... and we now will have, if nothing is done, between now and Jan. 1, there will be unequal application of this law throughout the state of Illinois. That is not right.”

Attorney General Kwame Raoul and other Democratic leaders named in the suit were far more sanguine about the outcome. Without an injunction against him, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and legislative leaders named as defendants, nothing stops the law from taking effect, Raoul said. And one circuit court's ruling does not bind other jurisdictions.

“The right of individuals awaiting criminal trials to seek release from jail without having to pay cash bail will go into effect in a few short days, despite the court’s ruling against those provisions," Raoul said in a statement. “Illinois residents in all...