Another day, another lawsuit
Thursday, Sep 2, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
McHenry and Kankakee counties filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday challenging the legality of a state ban on jails housing federal immigrant detainees.
The lawsuit is a response to a law that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed in August that calls for canceling contracts for jails to house immigrants awaiting court hearings and held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Kankakee, McHenry, and Pulaski counties have such agreements and keep about 260 detainees on average, ICE said.
“While perhaps proceeding from good intentions, this symbolic law does nothing other than serve as a demonstration of discontent by those in Springfield with current federal immigration policies and will only harm the very immigrants it purports to help,” McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally said in a news release.
* The lawsuit has three counts: Impairment of contract; Violation of intergovernmental immunity; Federal preemption of inconsistent state law.
- Give Us Barabbas - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 9:22 am:
Those prisoners were a profit center, like asset forfeiture.
- OneMan - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 9:41 am:
When Kane county had to get out of that business (earlier than the ban) it blew a big hole in the Sheriff’s budget.
- Homebody - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 9:57 am:
Their proposed reading of the contracts clause would mean the state could never change substantive law ever. That can’t be a correct reading.
- RNUG - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 11:20 am:
-Homebody- in general, contract law overrides a lot of stuff, and you can’t involuntarily (key word) and retroactively (another key word) change existing contracts. You can create different rules for new contracts going forward. That said, they may be overreaching a bit, so I’m not going to bet on which side the courts come down on the impairment of contract claim.
- Candy Dogood - Thursday, Sep 2, 21 @ 11:25 am:
This seems like a pretty good way for a States Attorney to get that xenaphobic/MAGA voting block without stooping to the standard rhetoric required to do so.