THE ILLINOIZE: Monday Free for All...Court upholds state assault weapon ban...The fate of Invest in Kids...Burke trial begins
November 6, 2023
Good morning, Illinois.
Welcome to the second and final week of veto session in Springfield. The General Assembly returns tomorrow and there are lots of unanswered questions. We’ll have a rundown for paid subscribers tomorrow.
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Governor Pritzker is at FermiLab at 9 for a ribbon cutting of their “quantum garage.”
Let’s get to it.
YOUR MONDAY FREE FOR ALL
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Federal appeals court upholds Illinois gun ban, finds no 2nd Amendment protection for assault weapons (Chicago Sun-Times)
The federal appeals court in Chicago sided Friday with the state of Illinois against challenges aimed at blocking the state’s nearly year-old assault weapons ban, ruling that weapons covered by the legislation don’t have Second Amendment protection.
“Even the most important personal freedoms have their limits,” Judge Diane P. Wood wrote in the court’s highly anticipated opinion. “Government may punish a deliberately false fire alarm; it may condition free assembly on the issuance of a permit; it may require voters to present a valid identification card; and it may punish child abuse even if it is done in the name of religion. The right enshrined in the Second Amendment is no different.”
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals found assault weapons and high-capacity magazines “are much more like machine guns and military-grade weaponry than they are like the many different types of firearms that are used for individual self-defense.”
In doing so, it found that Illinois’ controversial gun law survived the first part of a two-step test laid out in a crucial June 2022 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. That means the court’s analysis could stop without exploring the nation’s historical tradition as required by the second step. But the appeals court said challenges to the state’s law fare no better there.
Still, the appellate court said that it did not set out “to rule definitively on the constitutionality of the act” and that its opinion stems from lower courts’ rulings on requests for preliminary injunctions against Illinois’ law.
Judge Michael Brennan dissented from Friday’s ruling by Wood, who was joined by Judge Frank Easterbrook. Brennan called his colleagues’ conclusion “remarkable.”
The 7th U.S. Circuit appeals court oversees Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
Opponents of the Illinois law argued the decision forbade governments from banning weapons that are “in common use.” But Wood remarked it was “very troublesome to have a popularity contest decide a constitutional principle.”
Related: Federal appeals court upholds Illinois semiautomatic weapons ban (Associated Press)
Federal appeals court upholds Illinois’ assault weapons ban (Capitol News Illinois)
Federal appeals court upholds sweeping Illinois gun ban (Chicago Tribune)
Gun rights advocates question proposed assault weapons registration rules (Capitol News Illinois)
Morgan: Extreme court case shows we must reform the US Supreme Court to tackle gun violence (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: Restrict guns, don’t scapegoat the mentally ill (Bloomington Pantagraph)
Opinion: Enforce the gun laws we have instead of piling on even more (The Southern Illinoisan)
'It's a sensitive issue': Invest in Kids scholarship program hangs in the balance (Daily Herald)
The Illinois General Assembly's veto session this week should be a cliffhanger for a scholarship program that's unleashed a fight over public and private school funding.
The Invest in Kids initiative will expire Jan. 1 unless lawmakers approve an extension. So far, "I don't know if there's a path yet to get it passed," Democratic state Rep. Marty Moylan of Des Plaines said.
Democratic state Rep. Fred Crespo of Hoffman Estates agrees. "Based on my observations ... the votes are not there," he said Friday.
The program helps lower-income families afford private schools through scholarships funded by donations that topped $75 million in 2022-2023. Individuals that contribute to Invest in Kids receive a 75% tax credit, and that's fueled criticism that it siphons money from public schools, drawing fierce opposition from teachers unions.
The program, however, has been life-changing for Sanjuana Cardona of Waukegan, whose three sons attend Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein thanks to scholarships. Concerns about bullying and violence at local public high schools prompted Cardona to seek another option.
"Carmel is safe, Carmel is amazing," she said. "We are so happy and blessed my kids can attend but the problem is tuition,"
Private school representatives flooded the Capitol with students in October begging lawmakers to save their scholarships.
The issue is fraught for the Democratic majority. If the program is scuttled Thursday -- the last day of the veto session -- it would impact thousands of students in Chicago, the suburbs and downstate. Currently, 9,656 children and teens have scholarships.
Among them are Cardona's sons -- senior Alejandro, junior Carlos and sophomore Christopher.
They ask: "'If we don't receive the scholarship -- what's going to happen?' I don't want my kids to lose this opportunity," she said.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has not put his thumb on the scale other than to say he would sign a bill to continue Invest in Kids.
Republican Senate Leader John Curran supports the program and a compromise bill, which reduces the total donations eligible for tax credits from $75 million to $50 million and would prioritize students in underserved areas.
"The proponents are simply trying to kill this program based on ideology," Curran said. "My wife and I have chosen to send our daughters to public schools in Downers Grove but lower-income families should not be denied that same choice I had."
Democrat Crespo acknowledges "it's a sensitive issue."
"We're talking about real money here," Crespo said. "We're talking about $75 million that the state does not realize by giving out these credits. There are issues and concerns with the separation of church and state. Some of our members feel that the state should not be funding any private or Christian schools."
I’ve made my position on this clear.
Related: Why four trade unions want lawmakers to renew Invest in Kids scholarships (Chicago Sun-Times)
Opinion: Will compromise plan extend, reduce Invest in Kids scholarships? (Shaw Media)
From Chicago machine maestro to indicted alderman, Ed Burke’s corruption trial follows half-century of clout (Chicago Tribune)
Ed Burke was born into the machine.
The son of a Democratic ward boss and 14th Ward alderman, the younger Burke grew up in a home steeped in Chicago’s particular street-level realpolitik: Smooth over potholes, fix up friends with patronage jobs, and make sure everyone who benefited knew how to vote — and for whom to vote.
At its zenith during Mayor Richard J. Daley’s era, Chicago’s political machine was an enormous self-sustaining network, and the city ran on it for decades. And by the time the younger Burke turned into an elder Burke, he’d become one of the greatest purveyors of machine politics in the city and the longest-serving alderman in Chicago history.
Along the way, he’d earn infamy in the 1980s for trying to thwart every move of Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor, during “Council Wars,” pave the way for his wife to become chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, run the council’s Finance Committee like his own personal fiefdom and oversee an eponymous law firm that constantly put him into ethically questionable positions.
Federal prosecutors have accused Burke of using his position as alderman to leverage the public’s business for his personal profit and, on Monday, Burke, 79, begins a high-profile trial over 14 federal charges in a racketeering case. The ex-alderman has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers vow he will be vindicated. If he isn’t, he faces up to two decades in prison.
To win, Burke has spent nearly $3 million from his campaign funds on his lawyers’ legal fees since 2018, records show. Burke has also used his campaign funds to pay $165,000 in legal bills for co-defendant Peter Andrews Jr., who worked for years for Burke’s ward organization, and paid another $220,000 directly to Andrews for “consulting,” campaign records show. Andrews’ lawyers say that consulting payments also went toward Andrews’ legal fees.
It has taken years to get here. Even with initial charges hanging over his head, Burke rallied his organization, asked his Southwest Side constituents to stand by him and won reelection in 2019.
But as the case moved forward, he faced more charges, lost his ward committeeman post, saw his ward’s boundaries change, and declined to run for alderman one more time. Burke ended his historic tenure earlier this year, slightly undermining his long-running joke that aldermen only leave the City Council one of three ways: “The ballot box. The jury box. Or the pine box.”
Related: ‘Common sense’ doesn’t explain City Council, so judge to allow Chicago ‘civics lesson’ for Burke jurors (Chicago Sun-Times)
Ex-Ald. Ed Burke used campaign funds to pay six-figure ‘consulting’ fees to his co-defendant (Chicago Tribune)
LAST WEEK ON THEILLINOIZE.COM
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State Report Card Shows Students Still Trailing Pre-Pandemic Achievement
POLITICAL POTPOURRI
Mayor Brandon Johnson in Washington to ask for $5B in migrant funding (Chicago Tribune)
Blue Cross receives $231,900 fine from the state, third in two years (State Journal-Register)
In Chicago, Barack Obama calls for a ‘new generation of heroes to strengthen our bonds of trust’ (Chicago Tribune)
Stellantis commits to invest nearly $5B in Belvidere (Crain’s Chicago Business)
More than 15,000 Illinois homeowners stayed in their homes thanks to pandemic aid. That money has run out. (Chicago Tribune)
Temporary Bally’s Medinah Temple casino could stay open longer than expected under proposed law (Chicago Sun-Times)
Calumet City officials ticket Daily Southtown reporter for ‘hampering’ city employees with questions (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: Cook County residents shouldn’t pay for nursing home tax breaks (Chicago Sun-Times)
Editorial: Mayor Johnson, crime in Chicago is not a ‘dynamic.’ It’s a full-blown crisis. (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: Keep after-school programs alive across Illinois (Chicago Sun-Times)
Editorial: Will Illinois embrace a realistic energy future? (Champaign News-Gazette)
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