* Some background…

On June 5, an Illinois court ruled that provisions of P.A. 103-0586—a law the Illinois General Assembly and Governor J.B. Pritzker rushed through in May, changing the rules for accessing the ballot in the middle of an active election cycle—violates the constitutional rights of fourteen candidates seeking to access the ballot in the 2024 general election.

Case Background: On May 10, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit against the Illinois State Board of Elections for violating Illinoisans’ constitutional right to vote by repealing a campaign law mid-election.

Prior to this rapid repeal, if no one ran in a political party’s primary election, the party itself could nominate (or “slate”) a candidate, provided the candidate gathered the required number of petition signatures. On May 3, however, Governor Pritzker signed into law P.A. 103-0586, which repealed that provision, effective immediately—targeting only races for the General Assembly while allowing other offices to continue the slating process.

P.A. 103-0586 was signed into law abruptly in the middle of an election season. It was introduced on May 1 through a controversial “gut and replace” maneuver, when legislators replaced the entire text of a dormant, existing bill on another subject—Senate Bill 2412, which previously would have amended the Children and Family Services Act—with text that reformed the Illinois Election Code. The House passed the bill the same day. It was passed by the Senate the following day and signed into law as P.A. 103-0586 by the governor on May 3, less than 48 hours after its contents had been introduced.

* House Speaker Chris Welch then appealed the case directly to the Illinois Supreme Court. Today…

In this case, two justices of this court have recused themselves, and the remaining members of the court are divided so that it is not possible to secure the constitutionally required concurrence of four judges for a decision (see Ill. Const. 1970, art. VI, § 3). Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed. The effect of this dismissal is the same as an affirmance by an equally divided court of the decision under review but is of no precedential value.

Justices Neville and Cunningham recused.

…Adding… Leader Curran…

Illinois Senate Republican Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove) released the following statement in response to the Illinois Supreme Court’s dismissal of the Democrats’ appeal to the lower court’s finding that Public Act 103-0586 was unconstitutional.

“Gov. Pritzker once again signed a purely partisan law that violated the constitutional rights of Illinois citizens. This latest attempted power grab by Gov. Pritzker and the legislative Democrats that would have reduced voters’ choice in the upcoming election was thankfully rejected by the courts for the final time, and voters, rather than politicians, will have the final say on Election Day.”