Monday, July 27, 2026
New “mega master” hearings that began in Chicago in May are calling as many as 185 immigrants to a single small courtroom. Many immigrants, fearful and unable to find a lawyer on short notice, are missing critical court dates.
Financial documents that could alert communities to which hospitals are at risk of closing will be kept confidential under a new state law enacted by Gov. JB Pritzker. The move comes as doctors fear more hospitals could close next year.
On Friday, Judge David W. Dugan ruled Illinois’ RISE Act and DREAM Act policies as “unconstitutional and invalid” as applied to undocumented students. Dugan ruled that the policies violate federal law by providing residency-based college benefits to undocumented students while not extending the same benefits to all U.S. citizens who live outside the state.
The law requires law enforcement to tell survivors they can request to be interviewed by an officer of their sex or gender. It also states police should inform survivors they can have a support person with them during the interview.
Saying to find otherwise would leave him with no option other than to allow the justices of the Illinois Supreme Court — the very people he is suing — to control the fate of his case, a former Cook County judge has asked a federal appeals court to carve a path forward in federal court for his claims that Illinois' top state court judges trampled his personal and professional rights by abruptly ousting him for supporting President Donald Trump.