Chicago City Wire

Former prosecutor Bob Milan said the ruling overturning the SAFE-T Act on constitutional grounds is right on.

Milan is former First Assistant State's Attorney of Cook County and Former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

“I hate to speculate on what the Illinois Supreme Court may or may not do, but my take on it is that it will be found unconstitutional,” Milan said on Chicago’s Morning Answer prior to the Supreme Court's ruling.

The Illinois State Supreme Court ruled on Dec. 31 - the day before the sweeping criminal justice reform was set to take effect - the law’s implementation should be delayed given rulings in lowers courts.

"The opinion written by Judge Cunnington of Kankakee County is well-written, well thought out," Milan said. "And it's pretty clear that completely eliminating cash bail violated the separation of powers clause of the Illinois Constitution and that it's the only constitution (that) states in it 'all persons shall be bailable.' And that power to determine who's bailable and who isn't is inherent with the courts to determine – the judges – not the legislature. And so by enacting the SAFE-T Act, our state legislature infringed on the duties of the courts. I believe that will turn out right.”

Milan said Democrats may take the matter to a constitutional amendment vote.

“I think it's a distinct possibility, but the only way they can do it is by voters doing it,” he said.

“They're going to have to take it to the voters. That's the only way you can amend the Illinois State Constitution. So there will have to be a vote on it. And so we'll see what happens. But yeah I could (see) them trying to do that.”

Milan foresaw the Illinois Supreme Court's ruling.

“If it's ruled unconstitutional, then it's back to the drawing board. But you know, what's most troubling about this whole thing was the initial bill that got passed. I mean, the fact that our elected officials, the president of the Senate, the Speaker of the House and the governor pushed this bill and then signed it in the middle of the night. A bill that would absolutely endanger all of our communities. No doubt about it. I mean, it's outrageous what the initial bill said. And now here we are scrambling. The elected officials put us in this position, right. They chose to do this and they either didn't read it, which is outrageous. Or they read it, knew what it was going to do and did it anyway. And so to me, that's really troubling. "

The bill has been amended since it was first passed and issues in it were highlighted in the 2022 campaign season.

“The amendments are far better. A lot of positive changes in the amendment, but in the original bill…let me give you an example,” he said.

“Let's say three convicted murderers served their sentence and got out of prison. The parole is over and they spot a woman walking down the sidewalk and they jump out of their car. They walk, they walk up to and they punch you in the face and break their nose and take her purse. Under the original bill, they could not be held in custody. None of the three, even though they were convicted murderers, even though they committed that act against her because aggravated battery was not one of the listed offenses that were pretrial dettainable, nor was robbery. And because of the way that was written, you don't even consider you can't even get to the fact that they were all convicted murders. That’s how crazy that bill was. ”

Before it could take effect on Jan. 1, the Safe-T Act was ruled unconstitutional by Kankakee County Chief Judge Thomas W. Cunnington, of the 21st Judicial Circuit Court of Illinois.

“The administration of the justice system is an inherent power of the courts upon which the legislature may not infringe and the setting of bail falls within that administrative power, the appropriateness of bail rests with the authority of the court and may not be determined by legislative fiat,” Cunnington wrote in his decision.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul has noted his belief the Illinois Supreme Court will back up the General Assembly.

Proft noted Milan’s stance after the interview on Twitter.

“Fmr 1st Deputy Cook SA & AUSA for the Northern District Bob Milan: Pritzker's SAFE-T Act 1.0 would ‘absolutely have endangered communities’ and, while 2.0 is better, he agreed it matters not in Cook Co where the Preckwinkle-Evans-Foxx-Lightfoot axis de facto operates under 1.0,” Proft said on Twitter.