In 2016, the Illinois Supreme Court held that unconstitutionally obtained gun convictions could be used for charging and enhancement purposes unless the defendant vacated the conviction. Two years later, the court admitted it got it wrong. A rule articulated in a criminal case rippled out into a termination-of-parental rights proceeding and culminated in a call to arms. In his December 2019 Illinois Bar Journal article, “The Illinois Supreme Court’s About Face in In re N.G.,” Benjamin Lawson shows how In re N.G. challenges us as practitioners to recognize when a client’s conviction is unconstitutionally obtained and to do something about it.

Read more in the December Illinois Bar Journal.