Stories by Capitol News Illinois

The bill prohibits an employer from firing someone for missing quotas because of these bathroom and meal breaks and ensures that if the employee believes they're wrongly disciplined, they have a right to sue.

Under a measure that cleared the General Assembly this week, departments would have until July 1 to put the new rule in place. It still needs a signature from Gov. J.B. Pritzker to become law.

A bill banning what unions refer to as employer-sponsored “captive audience” meetings about religion and politics has cleared the General Assembly. It was one of 466 measures to do so during the Illinois legislature’s spring session, including a bill allowing for digital driver’s licenses.

Amid the flurry of legislation was a measure prohibiting state universities from admitting students based on familial and donor ties, an expansion of the ban on sales of e-cigarettes to minors and a bill prohibiting stores from stocking alcoholic beverages near non-alcoholic lookalikes.

Lawmakers passed more than 200 bills this week ahead of their scheduled May 24 adjournment. Many of the measures will soon head to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, including a bill that changes how damages accrue under Illinois’ first-in-the-nation biometric data privacy law.

Supermajority Democrats in the Illinois House moved quickly Wednesday to push through a change to state election laws that partially limits ballot access and adds three nonbinding referendums to the 2024 general election ballot. 

The matchup between 1st District Appellate Justice Jesse Reyes and state Supreme Court Justice Joy Cunningham has turned up the volume on a conversation about diversity on the state Supreme Court.

These cultural districts include ethnic enclaves in Chicago and historically Black neighborhoods in Champaign and Springfield.