Metro East Sun

State Rep. Charles Meier (R-Okawville) applauds the effort by Kankakee County Chief Judge Thomas W. Cunnington in overturning key portions of the Safe-T Act that allow for cashless bail. 

Meier has previously noted that 'there is nothing SAFE about the SAFE-T Act.' He recently took to Facebook to comment on Cunnington's decision. 

“This is why electing judges that are both fair and impartial to the bench is so important to me," he said. "I have worked hard to elect judges with the utmost integrity that will uphold the Constitution of the State of Illinois.”  

According to Cunnington, “The administration of the justice system is an inherent power of the courts upon which the legislature may not infringe and the setting of bail falls within that administrative power, the appropriateness of bail rests with the authority of the court and may not be determined by legislative fiat.”

Criminal law professor Richard Kling said the ruling was a forgone conclusion noting that “The arguments raised all had merit, they weren’t frivolous,” Chicago Sun-Times reported.

The SAFE-T Act will still take effect on Jan. 1 in 37 counties that did not join the lawsuit including Cook County. In those counties, thousands of inmates currently being held in prison while they await trial on serious crimes would be released. But after the judge’s ruling, the 65 counties involved in the lawsuit will not be subject to those provisions of the SAFE-T Act. The Act underwent changes after a campaign communications blitz revealed several glaring errors in the law. No Republicans voted for the bill or the subsequent changes. Once the Act is implemented in the surviving counties, those charged with the most heinous crimes—such as robbery, kidnapping, arson, second-degree murder, intimidation, aggravated battery, aggravated DUI, aggravated flight, drug-related homicide, and threatening a public official—will be freed, as Will County Gazette has previously reported.