In the wake of the highly-publicized shooting of a Springfield woman by a police officer, a measure requiring more stringent background checks for police hires has passed both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly.

An appeals court ruled against a mother who claimed her three-year prison sentence was “excessive” after her young child was found “severely malnourished” in Harvard and days from death.

The Woodford County State’s Attorney is blaming Illinois’ Pretrial Fairness Act for allowing the release before trial of a Germantown Hills man on 21 felony counts of possessing child pornography.

A measure to enhance road safety for senior citizens could soon become law in Illinois. State senators are considering the “Road Safety and Fairness Act” after House lawmakers passed it last month. Some senior citizens rely on driving themselves.

A member of a Chicago street gang has been sentenced to 34 years in federal prison for the murder of Paul Harris. Diontae Harper, 25, admitted in a plea agreement that he killed Harris on May 13, 2020. The incident occurred when Harper and another man fired multiple shots at Harris while he was seated in a vehicle at a gas station on South Halsted Street in Chicago's Auburn Gresham neighborhood.

Chicago police officers would not be banned from serving no-knock warrants or from pointing guns at children or handcuffing them during raids under a revised Chicago Police Department policy that will impose additional limits on how search warrants are used in Chicago, records show. U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, who is overseeing the federal court order known as the consent decree that requires CPD to change the way it trains, supervises, and disciplines officers, praised the revised policy as an example of what can be achieved through the reform push during a virtual hearing Tuesday.

Catherine Lang was evicted from her apartment outside Chicago after the police saw her swerving in traffic and charged her with driving drunk. A jury found her not guilty, but by then it was too late. 

Justice Joy V. Cunningham and the Illinois Supreme Court have announced the appointment of John P. Carroll Jr., as a judge in the Third Subcircuit of the Circuit Court of Cook County. Mr. Carroll is being appointed to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Thomas W. Murphy. Mr. Carroll’s appointment is effective May 23, 2025, and will conclude on December 7, 2026.

Law school graduates will take a new bar examination starting in February 2028 to become licensed to practice law in Illinois, the Illinois Supreme Court and the Board of Admissions to the Bar announced yesterday. The NextGen Uniform Bar Examination will replace the current Uniform Bar Exam, which Illinois has used since 2019.