CHICAGO (CN) — Illinois residents saw a raft of new laws take effect on New Year's Day, including new tests to newborn health screening procedures and an oddity that criminalizes "contact with a bear or nonhuman primate."
The Illinois Senate Democrats published an 18-page list of the new laws, which skew toward progressive policy aspirations in education, labor and health care, among others.
Among the more high-profile new laws are the Paid Leave for All Workers Act, which mandates 40 hours of annual paid time off for all workers in the state, and the nation's first prohibition on book bans as part of Illinois' official adoption of the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights. The latter was a direct response to bills passed in conservative states like Florida which heavily scrutinize books dealing with issues like race, gender and sexuality in public schools and libraries. Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat seen as building his profile for a future presidential run, took thinly veiled potshots at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his right-wing crusade against "woke" politics when he signed the ban on book bans this past June.
"Regimes ban books, not democracies," Pritzker said at the bill's signing ceremony.
Other new laws in education include House Bill 3801, which authorizes $4,000 annual retention bonuses for teachers working in "hard-to-staff" schools; House Bill 3428, which requires all schools in the state to have medication on hand to treat opioid overdoses; and House Bill 3924, which mandates fentanyl awareness courses in all public high school health classes.
In the labor arena the Paid Leave for All Workers Act outshone a number of other progressive bills, including one granting organ donors 10 days of paid time off, and an amendment to the state's Labor Dispute Act which criminalizes obstruction of picket lines during strikes. The amendment deems picket interference a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and $2,500 in fines. The state's minimum wage went up from $13 to $14 per hour this year — and from $7.80 to $8.40 for tipped workers — as part of an ongoing wage reform first enacted in 2019. The increase means Illinois has the highest minimum wage in the Midwest, with a further increase to $15 per hour — $9 for tipped workers — slated for Jan. 1, 2025.
On the health care front, the Illinois Generic Drug Pricing Fairness Act bars drug manufacturers and wholesalers from price gouging essential generic and off-patent drugs. The language of the act is complex, with "essential" medications defined as those deemed so by the World Health Organization or the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and price gouging defined as "an unconscionable increase in a prescription drug's price" that would "result in the wholesale acquisition cost of a 30-day supply of the essential off-patent or generic drug exceeding $20."
The act compels the state's director for the Department of Healthcare and Family Services to alert the Illinois attorney general to any suspected price gouging, and in turn allows the attorney general to petition circuit courts to levy civil fines of up to $10,000 per day against the offending price gouger.
Senate Bill 850 requires the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to provide financial assistance to grocery stores in or near food deserts. Eligible grocers include not only privately owned, for-profit stores but those owned by "local governmental units" such as cities, counties and food districts. It dovetails with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announcement this past September that his office would explore creating nonprofit, city-owned grocery stores to address food insecurity, particularly in the city's south and west sides. The announcement came after two Whole Foods and four Walmart locations closed down in 2022 and 2023 respectively, most in Black and Latino neighborhoods.
Other notable new laws include Senate Bill 1886, which bars courts from ordering people on probation or supervised release from jail to abstain from cannabis or alcohol, unless use of drugs was part of the offense they were convicted of; House Bill 1541, which bars utility companies from cutting gas and electric services to customers on days when the temperature rises above 90 degrees or a heat watch is in effect; and Senate Bill 40, aka the Electric Vehicle Charging Act, which requires all newly built single family homes and multi-unit residential buildings to include electric vehicle charging systems. The charging systems must also be included in any new renovations to multi-unit complexes.
Most strange is Senate Bill 1883, which prohibits the general public from interacting with bears and nonhuman primates. Violators can be punished with up to half a year in jail and $1,500 in fines.
New Year's Day also marked the beginning of enforcement for Illinois' ban on privately owned unregistered assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, though many of the state's county sheriffs have said they will not enforce it.
Follow @djbyrnes1
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
