Stewart v. Rosenblum

The Illinois Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of an as-applied challenge to the Pretrial Release Act. The petitioner, who was the defendant in the underlying criminal case, was charged with possession of a stolen motor vehicle and was initially released; however, after she failed to appear the State filed a petition for sanctions. Respondent, an associate judge of the circuit court, did not act on the petition and instead declared the Act unconstitutional as applied to petitioner’s case because it did not allow him to indefinitely detain petitioner before trial and he argued that he had an inherent authority to detain defendants prior to trial. The supreme court reversed the judgment of the circuit court, finding that the Act does not violate the separation of powers clause as applied to this case and that the respondent had no authority under the Act or the Illinois Constitution to indefinitely detain the petitioner. (THEIS, NEVILLE, OVERSTREET, CUNNINGHAM, ROCHFORD, and O’BRIEN, concurring)