Illinois Supreme Court

Justices from the state's highest court say geographic disparities have affected access to public defenders, particularly in rural counties. A new law aimed at promoting equity across the state has two years to be fully implemented.

Justices Elizabeth Rochford and Mary K. O'Brien said they were impressed by the state's only problem-solving court addressing child welfare cases. Their stop in McLean County was part of Rochford's effort to visit all 25 judicial circuits in Illinois.

Two men convicted of Bloomington murders in the 1990s have few levers to pull, maintaining their innocence for decades. Family and supporters of Snow and McNeil gathered Thursday for a Wrongful Convictions Day event in Normal.

A Central Illinois attorney has been sanctioned after filing a brief written partially by artificial intelligence that cited several “hallucinated,” or non-existent, cases. It’s believed to be one of the first known cases of an Illinois lawyer being punished for misusing A.I. in a real case.

The Illinois Supreme Court is being asked to review the appeals of two Twin City men who claim they were wrongfully convicted in unrelated McLean County murder cases from the 1990s.

Bloomington attorney John Kim chairs the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, which conducted the state's first comprehensive study on bullying in the legal profession.

The Illinois Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments in a case centered on whether a state law passed in 2023 violates the due process rights of Illinoisans outside Sangamon and Cook counties.

In a 6-0 ruling, the court found that cannabis laws in Illinois had evolved to the point that just catching a whiff of burnt weed is no longer enough probable cause for police to search a vehicle.

Law enforcement officers in Illinois cannot rely on the smell of burnt cannabis alone to justify searching a vehicle without a warrant, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

The Illinois Supreme Court has formally appointed a northern Illinois judge to the appellate court for the district that includes McLean County.