The Illinois Supreme Court on July 18 upheld the Pre-trial Fairness Act that eliminates cash bail for criminal defendants awaiting trial.
The landmark decision makes Illinois the first state in the nation to halt the use of cash bail.
The Pre-trial Fairness Act was a provision of the SAFE-T ACT (pdf), a major criminal justice reform bill signed into law by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in early 2021. The bail portion of the law was set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2023. The state Supreme Court stepped in to halt implementation following a Dec. 28 ruling from a Kankakee County judge who ruled the ending of cash bail to be unconstitutional….