Subject Index Constitutional Law

On June 12, 2024, the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court held the armed habitual criminal statute is constitutional under the Second Amendment and the Illinois Constitution.

On March 1, 2024, the Third District of the Illinois Appellate Court held that the statutes within the Illinois Criminal Code of 2012 that prohibit public firearm carriage do not violate the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

On Nov. 17, 2023, the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court held that legislative intent cannot be ruled on without invading the province of the legislature.

On March 31, 2023, the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court held that a trial court erred for failing to suppress inculpatory statements made after a defendant invoked his right to remain silent.

On Dec. 16, 2021, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed an Illinois Appellate Court decision for a new trial following a trial judge’s clearing of the courtroom for a minor victim’s testimony in a sexual assault case.

On Aug. 24, 2020, the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court reversed a trial court’s decision to deny a leave to substitute counsel solely on the grounds that the new attorney was not ready for trial.

On June 18, 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court held that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not protect a defendant whose conversation with a school official triggered a soft lockdown and a police response.

On April 18, 2019, the Illinois Supreme Court held that sentencing a juvenile to a prison sentence of greater than 40 years violates his or her Eighth Amendment rights because it imposes a de facto life sentence.

On Feb. 28, 2019, the trial court found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and convicted him, after bench trial, of disorderly conduct not protected by the First Amendment.

A pastor accused of sexual misconduct toward a parishioner was subjected to internal church disciplinary proceedings that exposed him to "public disgrace and scandal."

Trial counsel's failure to object to de minimis fines does not constitute a performance so inadequate as to render the representation constitutionally deficient in violation of the Sixth Amendment's right to counsel.

Citing the State's unquestionable interest in the creation, regulation, and dissolution of marriage, the Illinois Supreme Court reaffirmed its 1979 Hewitt v. Hewitt holding that Illinois public policy precludes unmarried cohabitants from bringing claims against one another to enforce mutual property rights rooted in a marriage-like relationship.

On June 24, 2016, the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court vacated a defendant's conviction and sentence for stalking and cyberstalking, finding that both crimes are unconstitutional as they lack a mens rea requirement.

On May 9, 2016, the Appellate Court of Illinois upheld a trial court's ruling to suppress evidence obtained by a warrantless entry into defendant's home.

On August 26, 2015, the Third District Appellate Court reversed the circuit court's grant of defendants' motions to suppress evidence of heroin obtained during a traffic stop.